Bankruptcy, stolen crypto investigation and criminal probes: The latest on the FTX collapse

euronews.com:

Cryptocurrencies are still feeling the aftershocks of last week after the third-largest crypto exchange FTX imploded and later filed for bankruptcy.

The company saw liquidity dry up after an explosive report by CoinDesk that questioned how stable the empire was, resulting in customers demanding withdrawals. The saga has caused massive financial losses and possible criminal investigations.

The largest cryptocurrency Bitcoin plunged about 65 per cent this year and was trading at around $16,500 (€17,000) on Monday. Other altcoins such as Ethereum have followed suit and seen a drop of up to 30 per cent in the last week.

The continuing cryptocurrency price tumble comes after FTX filed for bankruptcy on Friday and as FTX’s 30-year-old CEO and founder Sam Bankman-Fried, known by his initials SBF, resigned.

The saga has highlighted a volatile market and sparked calls for tighter regulation, which some in the industry have welcomed.

“We have seen in the past week things go crazy in the industry, so we do need some regulations, we do need to do this properly,” said Changpeng Zhao, also known as CZ, chief executive of the largest crypto exchange Binance.

Speaking on Friday at a conference in Indonesia, he added that comparing the current crypto turmoil to the 2008 financial crisis is “probably an accurate analogy”.

Binance has been a major player in the FTX turmoil. Zhao said last week that his company signed a letter of intent to buy FTX but then reversed his decision as FTX’s issues were “beyond our [Binance’s] control”.

“As a result of corporate due diligence, as well as the latest news reports regarding mishandled customer funds and alleged US agency investigations, we have decided that we will not pursue the potential acquisition of