FTX Selling the Pump? Estate Moves $8.6M Ethereum, Chainlink, Aave and Maker to Binance

Collapsed crypto exchange FTX is sending funds to Binance in what analysts say is the beginning of a sale to repay creditors.

Crypto analytics company Nansen highlighted on Twitter the movement of $8.6 million in Ethereum, Chainlink, Aave, and Maker from FTX and Alameda Research wallets.

The transfer to Binance is “to either sell or to prepare to sell these funds,” Nansen said. Binance is the world’s biggest crypto exchange and was FTX’s rival before the company went bankrupt. FTX did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Decrypt.

FTX, once one of the most popular crypto brands, went bust last November due to alleged criminal mismanagement. Around $9 billion in client money went missing but the company’s new management is in the process of returning the funds.

A lot of the cash is in the form of digital coins and tokens such as Ethereum and Chainlink. Earlier this month, FTX’s new management started to stake—or lock up a cryptocurrency to earn interest—Solana tokens held in wallets.

Sam Bankman-Fried, FTX’s ex-CEO and co-founder, is currently on trial facing seven criminal charges related to the collapse of the exchange.

FTX allowed its customers to buy, sell and bet on the future price of cryptocurrencies. But it quickly and unexpectedly went bankrupt. Bankman-Fried was arrested one month later.

Bankman-Fried, who rubbed shoulders with the rich and powerful, has denied any wrongdoing but prosecutors allege he criminally mismanaged the exchange and commingled funds.

FTX Looks to Offload Billions in Crypto: Here’s What it Means

It’s set to be a busy week for FTX’s legal team. The exchange is seeking regulatory approval to liquidate $3.4 billion in crypto assets, and FTX lawyers are also suing LayerZero, an onchain interoperability protocol to recover lost assets to the tune of $21 million. On September 13, Delaware Bankruptcy Court officials are set to rule on approving a $3.4 billion asset sale submitted by the defunct exchange’s legal team. The proposal, first outlined in August, would appoint Mike Novogratz’s Galaxy...

He is expected to testify at his trial, his own defense lawyers announced today. The trial at a Manhattan court is expected to last another three weeks.

Edited by Stacy Elliott.