FTX co-founder Gary Wang, convicted of misusing funds at a fictitious crypto exchange, may face punishment after his case goes to trial.

On Nov. 13, prosecutors in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York filed a brief alleging that Wang provided significant assistance in the investigation of crimes related to FTX, as well as in the prosecution of Sam Bankman-Fried and several other cases.

The government’s attorneys noted the importance of Wang’s testimony at the trial of Bankman-Fried, who was sentenced to 25 years. They also suggested that if Judge Lewis Kaplan decides to sentence Wang, he could develop a tool to identify potential illegal activities in the crypto market. Prosecutors noted that Wang’s testimony was truthful and corroborated by other evidence.

“Wang has also provided substantial assistance – and in the process taken steps to right past wrongs – by putting his extraordinary computer programing skills to use in detecting potential fraud in the stock and cryptocurrency markets.”

Court filing

Wang, who pleaded guilty to wire fraud, commodities fraud, and securities fraud in December 2022, is awaiting final sentencing on Nov. 20.

Is the FTX story nearing its end?

The latest updates would make Wang the fifth and final FTX or Alameda Research executive to face sentencing. Bankman-Fried was the only one to plead not guilty. In contrast, former Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison and FTX Digital Markets co-CEO Ryan Salame pleaded guilty. All of them are currently serving federal prison sentences.

However, the Bankman-Fried case has continued to see new details and court cases emerge, even as the founder of one of the world’s once-largest exchanges is serving his time in prison.

Meanwhile, Bankman-Fried’s assets are under threat

Earlier, U.S. prosecutors filed a lawsuit seeking to seize cryptocurrency, which they say Bankman-Fried used to bribe Chinese officials.

The lawsuit, filed on Nov. 12 in New York District Court, alleges that a Binance account, then worth about $8.6 million but later growing to about $18.5 million, was used to launder money related to bribes before FTX collapsed in late 2022.

Prosecutors noted that in 2021, Chinese authorities froze two Alameda Research accounts on Chinese exchanges that held $1 billion in cryptocurrency. Later, on Nov. 16, 2021, Bankman-Fried was recorded transferring $40 million to a personal wallet, after which the Alameda accounts were unfrozen. Prosecutors allege that Bankman-Fried initiated additional transactions worth tens of millions of dollars in cryptocurrency to complete the bribe.

“As a result of the Investigation, the Government learned that on or about November 16, 2021, at Bankman-Fried’s direction, approximately 40 million USDT (the “Bribe Payment”) was transferred from an Alameda cryptocurrency wallet hosted by FTX.”

Court filing

The account contained five linked deposit accounts, obscuring the origin of the bribe funds. They described a “flood” of deposits and withdrawals from the account and regular transfers of Bitcoin (BTC) and stablecoins to five wallets. Ellison testified that the total amount of bribes was about $150 million.

Bankman-Fried was initially charged with additional charges related to financial fraud and bribery of foreign officials, which were later dropped. On Sept. 13, his defense team filed an appeal, arguing that Bankman-Fried’s trial was unfair.

Meanwhile, the new FTX management is bombarded with lawsuits

FTX’s new management, meanwhile, is once again preparing lawsuits and demanding money. This time from Binance.

FTX bankruptcy trustees have filed a lawsuit against Binance and its former CEO, Changpeng Zhao, demanding a return of about $1.8 billion. The plaintiffs claim that Binance obtained the funds in a fraudulent transaction in 2021.

According to court documents, FTX and its trading subsidiary Alameda Research were probably insolvent from the start and were certainly insolvent on their balance sheets by early 2021. Therefore, the plaintiffs allege that the share buyback deal was fraudulent.

The lawsuit is one of many filed by FTX and Alameda against their former investors, affiliates, and customers as part of the bankruptcy case. On Nov. 9, the companies filed 23 lawsuits. Among them are claims against U.S. exchange Crypto.com and the political group FWD.US founded by Mark Zuckerberg.

FTX has also filed claims against Anthony Scaramucci and his hedge fund, SkyBridge Capital. The exchange’s lawyers claim that in 2022, Bankman-Fried invested $67 million in various SkyBridge projects since Scaramucci was “seeking financial assistance.” However, these investments “brought virtually no benefit,” the plaintiffs say. According to court documents, FTX is now trying to recover more than $100 million in damages from the company.

Alameda has also filed a lawsuit against Sasha Ivanov, the founder of the Waves blockchain. The company intends to return the $90 million invested in Vires Finance. This liquidity platform then operated on Waves.

“To divert attention from his involvement in the fraud, Ivanov attempted to publicly blame Alameda for destabilizing the Waves ecosystem, tweeting that Alameda had manipulated the WAVES price and organized FUD (“Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt”) campaigns to trigger panic selling.”

Alameda lawsuit

And what’s next?

In general, the history of the FTX and exchange executives are two different stories. While the platform executives serve their sentences, FTX creditors are frantically trying to return the money they wasted.

The debt to creditors is about $11.2 billion, and the funds available to cover the debt is $14.6-16.3 billion.

Thus, there is very little time left before the end of the scandalous exchange story – to decide on punishment for Wang and repay everyone’s debts.

The Senate hopes to push through a Bitcoin reserve bill in the first 100 days of Trump’s presidency while the Republicans consult on crypto policy.

American Senator Cynthia Lummis expressed optimism that plans to create a strategic Bitcoin (BTC) reserve will be implemented soon after Donald Trump‘s inauguration.

“I believe we can get this done with bipartisan support in the first 100 days if we have the support of the people. It is a game changer for the solvency of our nation. Let’s put America on sound financial footing and pass the Bitcoin Act!”

Senator Cynthia Lummis

Lummis’s post responded to David Bailey, BTC Inc. CEO, who has been actively advising Trump on cryptocurrency policy. Bailey had previously suggested that such a reserve could be created quickly under the new administration.

“The Bitcoin and Crypto industry’s policy wishlist is long and pressing… but the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve is the #1 most urgent and transformational policy on President Trump’s agenda. The downstream effects change everything. We must get it done in the first 100 days.”

David Bailey, BTC Inc. CEO

Bailey also floated the idea of ​​using Bitcoin more widely in government programs. He suggested that if Robert F. Kennedy Jr. were appointed Secretary of Health and Human Services and assumed responsibility for managing the Social Security program, there would be a discussion about paying 5-10% of Social Security payments in Bitcoin, stored in a strategic reserve.

What is known about the Bitcoin reserve project?

Trump announced the creation of a Bitcoin reserve in the U.S. in July 2024 during a speech at an event supporting his election campaign. A few days before the politician’s announcement, media reports appeared that Senator Cynthia Lummis was preparing a Bitcoin reserve bill called the BITCOIN Act of 2024.

The act proposes creating a network of decentralized vaults nationwide to securely store Bitcoin reserves. The U.S. Treasury Department is supposed to have 200,000 BTC annually for five years, and the U.S. reserves would eventually amount to one million BTC. It is also assumed that Bitcoin reserves will be stored for at least 20 years.

The cryptocurrency can be purchased at the expense of other assets at the authorities’ disposal, such as gold certificates. Lummis proposes to cover the costs of purchasing cryptocurrency by revaluing it.

In addition, the proposal plans to implement a reserve verification system to verify the availability of funds and consolidate all existing BTC that are currently in the possession of the U.S. government into a new reserve.

Bitcoin reserves to make the U.S. new crypto haven

Analysts at CoinShares write that implementing the plan to create strategic reserves in BTC can generate significant institutional and government interest in Bitcoin. According to their forecasts, this will potentially accelerate its growth and raise its value to new heights.

In general, many participants in the crypto community expect that the U.S. bet on Bitcoin can significantly increase the cryptocurrency’s investment attractiveness. For example, Anthony Pompliano, the founder of Pomp Investments, is confident that the initiative will cause the market to experience FOMO.

Lummis’ proposal implies that the pace of Bitcoin purchases may outpace the cost of BTC mining. In this case, a cryptocurrency deficit will form in the market, which can also support the growth of its rate.

Trump’s rally is in full swing. Or just a rally?

In general, Lummis’ words are confirmed based on the dynamics of Bitcoin and the entire crypto market since the U.S. elections. Over the past week, Bitcoin has repeatedly updated historical highs.

The total capitalization of the entire crypto market has grown by 25% in a week and exceeded $3 trillion. At the same time, the price of Bitcoin has increased by 23.8% in 7 days, several times updating the all-time high and reaching $93,000.

The crypto market’s index of fear and greed has grown by as much as 14 points in a week—from 70 points to 84 out of 100- indicating the market’s extreme greed.

However, some experts doubted that Trump’s victory was the only growth driver of the crypto market.

Thus, the co-founder of Onramp Bitcoin, Jesse Myers, noted that such crypto market dynamics are routine and predictable after the Bitcoin halving in April. During this time, a shortage of coins has arisen on the market, therefore the price is growing under pressure from demand. This triggers a chain reaction that should lead to another bubble.

Myers reminded that the same situation happened after each previous Bitcoin halving, so it makes sense to expect something similar this time. The change of power in the U.S. to one potentially more friendly to cryptocurrencies only acted as a catalyst.

November marks two years since the FTX exchange went bankrupt. Since then, major crypto exchanges have seen their Bitcoin reserves grow.

FTX’s inability to maintain sufficient reserves to meet user requests exposed severe flaws in its controls. It also highlighted the need for greater transparency and reliable reserve reporting among all crypto exchanges.

Observers have grown keenly aware of the risks that exchanges face when they lack sufficient reserves. If they cannot meet withdrawal requests, it undermines user confidence and puts them at risk of losing funds. Maintaining adequate reserves is critical for liquidity and order execution, especially during volatile periods.

In light of this trend, CryptoQuant shared with crypto.news a study on the state of exchange proof-of-reserves (PoR).

How has crypto changed post-FTX?

FTX‘s collapse in November 2022 was one of the most significant and dramatic events in the crypto industry’s history. This incident undermined investor confidence and caused profound changes in the crypto market’s structure and functioning.

At the time, the price of Bitcoin (BTC) and other major cryptocurrencies fell, reflecting fear and distrust of institutional players in the market. Many investors began to doubt the safety and stability of crypto and, as a result, decided to leave the market completely.

Attention toward security issues became even more urgent. Many crypto exchanges and projects have begun implementing new measures to protect users’ funds, including two-factor authentication, monitoring systems, and analyzing transactions for suspicious activity.

New security standards have emerged, as well as solutions to prevent the loss of funds in case of hacks or fraudulent activities. Among others, the PoR standard has emerged — a mechanism cryptocurrency exchanges use to publicly demonstrate that they have enough assets in reserve to cover all user balances.

“PoR fosters trust and transparency, as it allows users to confirm that an exchange has not over-leveraged or mismanaged their assets, which has become particularly crucial following high-profile exchange collapses in the industry.”

CryptoQuant

Major exchanges record Bitcoin outflow

Among the major exchanges with the most prominent Bitcoin reserves, only Coinbase does not publish PoR reports. Experts note that the other major exchanges periodically provide such reports with varying degrees of transparency.

Binance’s reserve increased by 28,000 BTC, or 5%, reaching 611,000, despite the pressure from the U.S. authorities in 2023. Among the major exchanges, Binance also shows the most minor reserve decrease over the entire period, not exceeding 16%.

Three key exchanges hold 75% of all Bitcoins held by exchanges. These are Coinbase Advanced, with 830,000 BTC, Binance with 615,000, and Bitfinex, which has 395,000 Bitcoins.

Together, the reserves of these platforms reach 1.836 million BTC, which is 9.3% of the total amount of Bitcoins in circulation. The remaining 17 exchanges hold a total of 684,000 BTC.

Reserves landing

Currently, Binance, Bitfinex, and OKX show small decreases in reserves. At the same time, Binance appears to be the only exchange that has not experienced significant drawdowns in its history.

Analyzing exchange reserves based on tracking their changes allows us to assess their ability to meet user demands over time.

Significant declines may indicate that users are massively withdrawing their funds, indicating a decrease in trust or financial problems.

The most significant decline in Binance’s reserves was 15%, which occurred in December 2022, shortly after the FTX crash. At the time, Binance faced considerable criticism and distrust over its reserve report.

However, Binance’s reserves have recovered and are currently down only 7%. Other significant exchanges have also seen slight declines, with Bitfinex down 5% and OKX down 11%.

While industry leaders like Binance and Bitfinex have managed to shore up their reserves since the FTX crash, the situation is still tense. The failure of some major players like Coinbase to publish PoR reports suggests that the road to full transparency is still far off. But the current reserve dynamics indicate a desire to improve and increase users’ trust.

The expert, in a comment to crypto.news, emphasized that the bankruptcy of FTX underscored the need for crypto exchanges to prove that they have enough reserves.

“This event led to a shift where users prefer exchanges that show proof of their assets on-chain. This pushed the industry to adopt PoR practices, helping rebuild trust and ensure exchanges can back up their users’ funds.”

Nick Pitto, head of marketing at CryptoQuant