FTX Sues Crypto Firm Bybit to Recover Assets Worth $953 Million

Jonathan Randles, Bloomberg News

(Bloomberg) -- FTX’s bankruptcy advisers sued crypto exchange Bybit Fintech Ltd and two corporate affiliates to recover cash and digital assets valued at roughly $953 million that was withdrawn from Sam Bankman-Fried’s crypto exchange before it filed Chapter 11 a year ago.

The lawsuit filed Friday in Delaware court alleges Bybit’s investment arm, Mirana Corp., had special “VIP” benefits, which most FTX customers didn’t have, and used those special privileges to get most of its assets off Bankman-Fried’s platform before it collapsed in November 2022.

Mirana pressured FTX employees to fulfill its withdraw requests as regular customers of FTX.com waited hours trying to get money off the exchange as it collapsed, according to the complaint. The lawsuit seeks to recover assets worth roughly $953 million, a figure that includes more than $327 million Mirana allegedly withdrew from FTX between the early morning of Nov. 7 and Nov. 8 2022, when Bankman-Fried’s exchange paused withdraws.

Representatives for Bybit didn’t immediately respond to a message seeking comment on the complaint. An FTX spokesman declined to comment.

The bankruptcy lawsuit names Bybit Fintech Ltd., Mirana and an affiliated crypto trading firm named Time Research Ltd. The lawsuit also lists as defendants a senior Mirana executive at the time and Singaporean residents whom the complaint alleges either benefited or had a role in the FTX withdraws, which are subject to the bankruptcy suit.

Chapter 11, in general, gives failed companies the ability to recover funds in the months before a bankruptcy filing —a power meant to make sure certain creditors don’t get a windfall just because they were able to get their money out of a failed business while others couldn’t. The Bybit complaint is the latest lawsuit brought by FTX’s new management seeking to recover funds paid-out before it filed Chapter 11 last November.

FTX said in the lawsuit that it valued the assets Bybit and its affiliates withdrew from its exchange using Nov. 1 pricing and that it could supplement pricing information as the litigation moves forward. The complaint also said that at least some of its legal claims may be subject to so-called “subsequent new value” defenses.

The case is FTX Trading Ltd., 22-11068, in the US Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware.