Topic: ㅤ (Read 812 times)

FTX did a great job of convincing people that it was a powerful and growing company, but that wasn't the case. I'm somewhat disappointed at how quickly she died, given her recent stats. A year ago, I would have bet any money that such a large exchange could not have disappeared from the crypto radar so quickly.

It is a pity that the exchange is no more, because at some points it had some convenient features and good withdrawal fees.

It became clear back in 2021 that FTX was serious about switching places with Binance. Time is running out for Binance, but to give them their due, the exchange has been at the top of the crypto Olympus for 3 years now. Decent result.

Since I adhere to the theory that FTX and Binance are projects of the same large corporation, they decided to put FTX in the lead due to Binance's frequent problems with regulators and other legal problems. It's probably easier to swap exchanges and bring FTX to #1 among exchanges than trying to fix all Binance's problems. FTX's expansion is gaining momentum and they are entering into a lot of partnership agreements and buying various services, and the trading volume is constantly increasing.

What can not be said about Binance. For almost a year, Binance has been associated with some kind of bans, restrictions, the introduction of KYC for all users, the closure of representative offices in different countries, etc. All this affects the popularity of the exchange and its trading volumes. By the way, it is already possible to observe how Binance trading volumes fall to 6 billion per day.

Not surprised by this news at all. FTX has been aiming to become a leader among cryptocurrency exchanges for a long time, so they will try to occupy all possible niches and markets, especially where their main competitor, Binance, does not exist. In the European market, Binance has not received the appropriate license in many places, FTX representations may appear there. Last year I asserted and continue to assert that the king will soon be overthrown.

Time to lock this thread perhaps?

There are big fears that Binance may be the next CEX, we learned after the fact that FTX Ventures and Alameda Research participated in investment rounds of 225 companies.

Sorry Ratimov, yes take over did happen... but in reverse :p

This might be the weirdest partnership in the cryptospace hehe. What is FTX's plan in their partnership with a chain of video game and electronics retail company? FTX might be speculating on play to earn and NFTs next after organizing themselves as one of the largest cryptocoin and derivatives exchange. I am also quite certain this will not only be about FTX giftcards.



Video game firm GameStop (GME) is partnering with Sam Bankman-Fried’s crypto exchange FTX.US to promote interaction between the gaming and crypto community.

The deal unites GameStop, one of the key players in the meme-stock craze of a year and a half ago, with one of the leading crypto exchanges.

The two companies will promote e-commerce and marketing initiatives, while certain GameStop retail stores will carry FTX gift cards, according to a statement Wednesday. GameStop is also being given the label of FTX’s “preferred” retail partner in the U.S.

Deal terms weren’t disclosed.

Read in full https://sports.yahoo.com/gamestop-partners-crypto-exchange-ftx-203033710.html

I speculate FTX might surpass Binance and become the biggest cryptocoin exchange and derivatives platform in the world on 2024. Also, with Sam Bankman Fried's political connections, FTX.us might use regulations to also surpass Coinbase in America.

In any case, if you are looking for altcoins to speculaton on for the next bull market, follow FTX and Alameda Research. They support Stargate Finance and the new project called Aptos which is speculated to be a Solana replacement hehehe.



Crypto exchange FTX has disclosed that its revenue skyrocketed to more than 1000% last year courtesy of the bull market that saw Bitcoin soaring to a record peak of $69,000, and pushing the company’s revenue from just under $90 million in 2020 to balloon to over $1 billion the following year.

Sam Bankman-Fried, FTX CEO, has confirmed a CNBC story that the company’s income grew by 1,000% as a result of a rising crypto market and a slew of acquisitions. The gain was attributed to the company’s global trading operation.

According to forecasts, FTX might make up to $1.1 billion this year. Documents also revealed that at the end of 2021, the company held nearly $2.5 billion in cash and had profit margins of 27%.

Source https://bitcoinist.com/crypto-exchange-ftx-revenue-up-1000/

FTX Exchange FZE, a subsidiary of FTX, became the first company to receive a permanent MVP license from the Dubai Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) for the provision of digital currency exchange services, as well as the license makes it possible to provide custodial services, manage the NFT marketplace and perform the function of a clearing house.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/ftx-wins-full-approval-operate-crypto-exchange-dubai-2022-07-29/

It appears that FTX might become the most dominant major player in the American crypto market hehehe. Sam Bankman Fried and also his VC and market making team at Alameda Research are presently beginning to conquer everything. There was an article that Alameda market makers are the largest borrowers of USDT, rumored to control more than 33% of USDT issued.

In any case, has anyone tried using FTX.us before? How good is it if compared with Coinbase or Binance.us?



Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder and CEO of crypto exchange FTX, met Goldman Sachs (GS) CEO David Solomon in the Caribbean to discuss potential collaborations between the two firms, the Financial Times reported Thursday.

The two chief executives discussed Goldman Sachs advising FTX, which was valued at $32 billion in January, on future funding rounds and taking a role in a potential initial public offering (IPO), according to the report, which cited people familiar with the matter.

Source https://www.coindesk.com/business/2022/04/21/goldman-sachs-eyes-collaboration-with-crypto-exchange-ftx-as-ceos-meet-report/

FTX US has reached a strategic agreement to invest in IEX Group, as reported by the partner, this creates a market structure for the purchase, sale and trading of digital asset securities. The deal between IEX and FTX US is scheduled to close in May 2022 if it is approved by the regulator.

Source: https://twitter.com/IEX/status/1511338901167824905

FTX, together with CoinShares, announced the planned inclusion in the main German market of Xetra (a division of Deutsche Börse) in the listing of Solana ETP (ticker SLNC) with physical bets with an initial capital of $1 million, with a fixed staking fee of 3% p.a., while the management fee will be 0% p.a.

CoinShares and FTX announce partnership with the launch of CoinShares FTX physical staked Solana ETP

FTX has decided to master the crypto markets of Europe and is already aiming for the spot crypto market of England.

FTX’s European head plots ‘cautious’ expansion into UK market

This move is quite understandable. FTX continues to expand in the crypto industry, but the choice of the spot direction was chosen due to restrictions by the UK government on access to derivative instruments for retail investors.

I think the opening of new European divisions by the FTX exchange will also appear with enviable regularity.

FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried told bloomberg that the FTX exchange has received a license in Dubai and plans to open a headquarters in the emirate and will also offer complex derivatives with centralized clearing for the institutional market.

Source: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-03-14/crypto-exchange-ftx-wins-license-and-plans-regional-hq-in-dubai
or you can read from the archive: https://archive.fo/wApH1

FTX reported that it is creating a charitable foundation to which it directs $100 million and expects that up to $1 billion. The fund's funds will be used to invest in what they call "ambitious projects to improve the long-term prospects of humanity," I think this is a timely initiative considering what is happening now.

Source: https://ftxfuturefund.org/announcing-the-future-fund/

FTX has become interested in the gaming segment and is likely to launch its own gaming division. The structure is designed to facilitate the introduction of cryptocurrencies, blockchain and NFT by game publishers into their products.

Source: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-02-21/ftx-enters-gaming-as-backlash-grows-against-crypto-s-incursion?sref=AACmJ2tc
since reading is available only by subscription, you can use reading the news archive: https://archive.fo/Zpfed

It seems that FTX will increase volumes much more as they report that they have reached an agreement on the acquisition of the Japanese cryptocurrency exchange Liquid and its subsidiaries. The amount of the transaction was not disclosed, its closure is expected by March 2022.

Source: https://blog.liquid.com/acquisition-liquid-ftx

FTX’s valuation has reached $32 billion after the exchange received $400 million in series C funding. I reckon their valuation is almost as big as Coinbase’s valuation which presently might be $38 billion. This is very good for them! FTX has less than 200 employees compared to Coinbase which has more than 1000 employees.

However, did Binance reach their size with only a funding of $15 million from their ICO? CZ’s accomplishments presently continues to be the most impressive.



Cryptocurrency exchange FTX saw its valuation swell to $32 billion in a new funding round announced Monday, highlighting continued appetite for the sector even as investors grow wary about a sharp pullback in crypto prices.

Source https://www.cnbc.com/2022/01/31/crypto-exchange-ftx-valued-at-32-billion-amid-bitcoin-price-plunge.html

Yes, too, at one time at the end of 2017, I had a problem with depositing funds on bittrex, which, however, was resolved favorably for me in the end, but it took more than two months and only after contacting the Better Business Bureau with a complaint regarding the bittrex exchange, which did not transfer funds to the deposit.

Ordinarily I wouldn't leave many funds in an exchange, but I'd managed to amass decent bags of alts (usually donated) but it wasn't viable to start vet another blockchain on my PC (and no paperwallet to speak of), so when ya gotta park the crypto somewhere, an exchange is the way to go.


Yeh, bittrex is another exchange that just geo blocks, cuts off all means to communicate then ignore

Sham really...

But most exchanges that I have seen get strict and even restrict people from certain jurisdictions from using the platforms would still leave provisions for the unwanted people to withdraw their funds. I think I saw such a thing with Binance, Bittrex, Localbitcoins etc.

Anyway, like they always say. No one should leave funds in an exchange and go on vacation from trading for months or years. Things change so fast when it comes to crypto.

For me personally, I have had to do the whole KYC process on a number of (crypto) exchanges only to have many months later the exchange go offline for a variety of reasons, or the exchange decide to block my geo location so I can't even view the website much less go cap in hand asking for my funds back.

So I can understand reluctance by many to go through the process yet again - chances are they've also lost funds in much the same way.

There is no doubt that FTX is a great to exchange platform for spot and future trading. But I faced a problem while verifying my KYC, for my camera I have to verify it manually. They told users it maximum would take 7 days for manual verification. but it took around 2 weeks for manual verification. I knocked them in the support in 7th day, but they replied in the verification day.

Sometimes it showing errors while instant verification, but manual verification also takes much time.

More and more companies are starting to invest in the development of the metaverse ecosystem, and FTX does not stay away from this, stating that it will launch a Web3 venture fund worth $2 billion by sending them to the new FTX Ventures venture capital division headed by Amy Wu.
https://twitter.com/FTX_Official/status/1482062145315504132
https://ventures.ftx.com/

@JeromeTash. I have noticed that the hesitancy on KYC are from those very idealistic holders of bitcoin. However, the traders do not really mind, I reckon. This is an accepted reality.

Also, I think Bitmex lost its popularity, not because they began asking for KYC. It lost popularity because the government was going after Arthur Hayes and the other founders hehe. This was taken advantage by FTX and grabbed much of Bitmex’s users.

I probably used the narrative word badly. What I meant is maybe if the "trend" of people disliking exchanges that fully enforce KYC and all those other required documents changes then yes, it will be a walk in the park for FTX to have so many new traders using their platform but as we speak right now most true crypto lovers and traders are still hesitant to use fully complaint exchanges. It's why the likes of Bitmex lost popularity as soon as they went fully complaint.

It does not appear to be an allocation hehehe. What it appears like is FTX is bribing the banks to accept stablecoins. I am also quite certain one of the stablecoins is Tether. Sam Bankman-Fried’s Alameda Research fund is one of the biggest market makers that use Tether.

@JeromeTash. It is not a narrative. It is something similar to a company policy. However, I agree that Binance is being forced to comply to regulations of different jurisdictions. This is because they will lose their competitiveness against exchanges that do comply.

Maybe if the narrative changes but what we have been seeing in the past was non regulated or semi regulated exchanges like Binance and Bitmex pulling most of the trading volumes while those that seemed to comply like Coinbase, Gemini, Kraken had less volumes.

As soon as Bitmex and Binance started to comply by asking for complete KYC verification for every user, their popularity started going on a downtrend pretty fast.

So people sort of liked the unregulated exchanges and i believe may still prefer them.

FTX allocates $1 million for regional banks ready to create deposits and withdraw customer funds based on stablecoins (which exactly is meant, they do not specify), for this FTX is ready to enter into partnerships with such banks.
https://twitter.com/FTX_Official/status/1475917176267624450

@Ratimov. However, it will not be FTX’s marketing that would bring the exchange the advantage. It will be the exchange’s willingness to work with regulators and fix compliance issues. This is the opposite of what Binance’s original plans were. There was an interview with CZ where he mentioned that his longterm vision for Binance was to become decentralized. He also appeared to be proud that Binance did not have an office address.

Bitcoin news media website, Decrypt voted Sam Bankman-Fried as the cryptospace’s founder of the year. It appears from this interview that what they are doing in marketing was only the beginning. The regulatory progress might be where FTX would start killing the king of exchanges, Binance. I predict on the next bull market by the year 2024, FTX will be no.1 with the highest volume and liquidity in all spot trading and derivatives trading. Invest in FTT while price is low hehehe.



Scanning headlines might lead you to believe it was sponsorship and marketing deals that made 2021 a huge year for derivatives exchange FTX and its CEO Sam Bankman-Fried.

The goal of all those deals, Bankman-Fried has said, was to build FTX’s name recognition. But he sees them as mere groundwork for bigger things to come in 2022.

“I think it’s a little bit surprising exactly how much focus there was on [the sponsorships],” Bankman-Fried told Decrypt by phone. "Where we’re really excited," he said, is the regulatory progress FTX made this year, and where he thinks those efforts could end up. "But that doesn't mean that's where they are today."

Source https://decrypt.co/88831/crypto-founder-of-the-year-sam-bankman-fried-ftx

I have not yet considered crypto to be mainstream after watching Tom Brady’s FTX commercials or reading about Stephen Curry and David Ortiz entering the cryptospace through FTX. However, there was a new commercial of crypto.com with Matt Damon that will make you say crypto is mainstream.




The Major League Baseball legend, who hit more than 500 home runs in his career and won three World Series titles with the Red Sox, has agreed to a multiyear deal with the exchange.

As part of the pact, Ortiz, who is now retired as a player, will be compensated in cryptocurrency through the FTX app and will release multiple collections of non-fungible tokens (NFTs), according to FTX’s press release.

FTX’s athlete ambassadors also include Tampa Bay Buccaneer quarterback Tom Brady and Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry. TV commercials referencing the Ortiz deal (and mentioning Brady and Curry) began running on Tuesday night during the first game of the 2021 World Series.

Source https://www.coindesk.com/business/2021/10/27/red-sox-legend-david-ortiz-into-crypto-now-signs-multiyear-ftx-deal/



Crypto is mainstream.



The Oscar winner will star in Crypto.com’s new global ad campaign “Fortune Favors the Brave,” which begins airing in the U.S. on Thursday night.

Directed by Wally Pfister, the 60-second commercial features Damon taking viewers on a historical journey of brave men and women who’ve made a difference in the world, in the hopes of inspiring people to “be their bravest selves.” This campaign intends to formally introduce the platform — aimed to accelerate the world’s transition to cryptocurrency — to consumers around the world and will launch on TV during “Thursday Night Football” on Fox Sports, eventually running in more than 20 countries.

Source https://www.imdb.com/news/ni63451868



Should Sam Bankman-Fried be credited for the person who completely brought the cryptospace to the mainstream? It appears that other exchanges and companies in the cryptospace are following his marketing tactics.

Hm sorry for bringing it up again then, but anyway, apart from Blockfolio in specific still sucking (as offered by FTX now), I think your point is valid quite in general. They still suck and were bought out for a big bag of money. I guess that happened to quite a lot of websites, applications, products that were developed and were in the slightest related to cryptocurrencies. It didn't even have to be rocket science in terms of development or creativity, it just had to be somewhat relevant to the industry and you probably could make a fortune with it even if the thing died further down the road.

This is the type of weapon in maneuvering that FTX has in their armory but Binance does not have. Sam Bankman-Fried is a very smart CEO. Chinese regulators banned the cryptospace? Sam attacks the next biggest market potential of the cryptospace in Asia.



Cryptocurrency exchange FTX Trading Limited on Wednesday announced a partnership with the International Cricket Council (ICC), the global governing body of Cricket.

FTX will be the official cryptocurrency exchange partner for all the events organized by the global Cricket regulator.

The partnership covers all ICC tournaments- Men’s and Women’s Cricket World Cups; Men’s and Women’s T20 World Cups; Men’s U19 Cricket World Cup, and Men’s Cricket World Cup Qualifiers.

The first assignment of FTX is the upcoming Men’s T20 World Cup beginning this month.

Source https://coincrunch.in/2021/10/14/ftx-partners-with-icc-launches-prediction-game/

FTX’s critics might be missing the argument on what FTX really is for the cryptospace. We have not witnessed an exchange that is operated and maneuvered on this type of level before. We should expect bigger growth and on a level where we as users can say that FTX is the Google or Amazon of the cryptospace. A level where it will be too high for Binance to reach. Those FTT tokens will be more than $1000 in 3 years hehehe.



Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange by volume, was an early investor in crypto exchange FTX, which 29-year-old Sam Bankman-Fried founded in 2019. This week, the investment relationship suddenly ended. In an extensive interview with Decrypt, Bankman-Fried discussed why.

“We recently repurchased shares from Binance to buy them out of our cap table,” Bankman-Fried said. “I think it just makes sense given the role that our businesses are playing in the space. It can also give us more flexibility going forward.”

On Tuesday, FTX announced a $900 million raise from 60 high-profile investors including Sequoia, Paradigm, Softbank, Paul Tudor Jones, and NFL quarterback Tom Brady and supermodel Gisele Bündchen. It was the largest ever funding round for a crypto exchange, valuing FTX at a cool $18 billion.

Source https://decrypt.co/76584/ftx-ceo-sam-bankman-fried-why-bought-out-binance-investment-shares-exit

I clearly didn't bookmark them, but a quick search has shown that in some cases in the past Poloniex (in its golden years) did recover funds, while there were cases Kraken or Binance didn't. I didn't check the amounts though; I also didn't spend too much time searching, so I guess that one can find better examples.

1. I don't understand how on earth can somebody send such huge amounts of money without triple checking.
2. I think that the user was somewhat lucky that it was partly FTX fault too, else he may have not receiving anything. I've seen such cases too on other exchanges.

That's if the traffic keeps going FTX's way.

So many exchange tokens such as Huobi token, Kucoin shares, or Okex's OKB haven't leaved up to the expectations to follow BNB's footsteps. I am personally keeping an eye on Bybit's BITDAO since it's just launched.

Hmm... and yet I made mention of that fact way back a month ago in post #12...


So far the blockfolio / FTX app hasn't changed other than the name and logo.  It's still full of errors and exchanges that got robbed years ago listed as active.  Hopefully the new owners knew what they were buying was a slightly used app and have deep pockets to make the necessary adjustments to bring the app up to scratch.

Seems like there are some congratulations due for the Blockfolio founders! Same with the guys behind Coinmarketcap when they got acquired. Neither of those founders would probably have expected to once get bought for amounts of that magnitude.

I didn't have FTX on my radar for quite a while. Just noticed them when I found out they took over Blockfolio. Does anyone know how much they acquired Blockfolio for? Just asking out of interest. Definitely a business to watch as it seems!

Sam Bankman-Fried is also in the cover of Forbes magazine. The other cryptoexchange owner who made the cover is Changpeng Zhao of Binance. Binance became the biggest exchange after that with BNB pumping from $1.00 during the bear market to $600 during the present bull market. I speculate the best investment to buy during the next bear market is FTT.

Indeed, it was discussed in the F1 topic here and here.

I've even put there a nice image where FTX is visible:


I guess it wasn't cheap, but it is visible and imho it's a big deal, especially after crypto.com entering F1 and (hopefully) making more people read about crypto.

I speculate that Sam knows that he is opening a new method for moving tokens to avoid the SEC’s policies and regulations. NFTs is art and business dealings with art and the art industry is not strictly regulated by the SEC. Clearly this will make NFT markets become bigger than Defi.

FTX CEO announced the addition of a new function for issuing non-interchangeable tokens (NFT) on the main and American platforms. All NFTs will be cross-chain compatible with Ethereum and Solana. Deposits and withdrawals will be opened within a few weeks.


upd: And about the possibility of interaction with the OpenSea platform. When asked by user @paulcr2009 if it would be possible to deposit existing collections from OpenSea, Sam Bankman Fried's answer was: "Soon".

@Ratimov. FTX will never have a shortage of marketing and promotion. They have partnered with the Miami Heat, Major League baseball, an esports team and they also have Tom Brady and the sexy wife Gisele Bundchen as major investors hehehe. Sam might become the Jeff Bezos of the cryptospace.

Also I received this reply after I mentioned that FTX might be the Binance killer hehehe. It appears that much of the people in the forum will be shocked to learn about FTX.



I will create a thread for [FTT] speculation when it pumps to $100 hehehehe.

Agreed on your prediction on FTT. I have also argued that FTT might be a good token to hold during bear markets in the altcoin speculation subforum, however, there were much disagreements about this hehe. I reckon that they might not have considered FTX’s buy and burn system which appears to be growing.

Also, much of the people did not consider that the buy back system might be another method of indirect form of revenue for holding FTT. If the exchange revenue grows, the buy backs of FTT will also grow.

It should be noted that FTX is actually the App Blockfolio that recent changed the skin of the blockfolio app and it is now called FTX. 

As to the Blockfolio/FTX app, nothing has changed.  The app is still full of inaccuracies in so far as it lists exchanges such as Nova,  Cryptopia and even AEX (to name but a few) as sources to poll prices of the crypto assets in you portfolio.

What has changed however, is the addition of the FTX exchange as a method of polling crypto prices (even ones that aren't listed on their exchange) so they're probably polling the figures from elsewhere, collating, then repackaging as their own product.

I haven't tried at add Derivatives or other stocks on the stock market, (I have an App called Delta that already does that) however, a while ago a stock by the name of GameStop saw their price jump into the hundreds of dollars - I have a small bag of an alt coin called GameCoin whose symbol is GME which just happens to be the same as GameStop (GME).  Without any prior notification, Blockfolio (now FTX) changed the logo from GameCoin (GME) to GameStop (GME) and now polls the prices for GameStop (GME).

So now I appear to have over $100,000,000 worth of GameStop (GME) when in fact I own GameCoin (GME) which are not listed on any exchange and are worthless. 

Blockfolio (now FTX) arbitrarily changed the type of commodity with the symbol GME without telling anyone.

Indeed, losing liquidity can easily become a problem for Binance, although I didn't feel in yet. But I also don't use Binance that much... I'm not a trader.
But - although they are not to be trusted - the volumes shown by Binance are still at a different level of magnitude than the opponents, whether it's Huobi, OKEX, Coinbase or FTX.
It won't be easy for FTX to claim #1.

When you first replied me (some weeks/months ago) about FTX pushing to replace Binance I was like "who?!"; I didn't hear about FTX before, somehow I managed to completely miss their rise.
Meanwhile I've read more and indeed, they push quite hard to grow, since indeed, it's a good moment for a change.

On the other hand.. I don't know, FTX looks like yet another very KYC friendly exchange, hence I see no big difference between filling KYC at Binance or leaving vs filling KYC at FTX or avoiding it.

Imho this should have been posted here. FTX is growing:

I think that FTX certainly has a lot of merits over sites like Bitmex and Deribit which don't have the offerings of FTX tokens.

FTX tokens have also outperformance Binance tokens substantially over the same time period because they don't have the variable leverage offerings. I think that is definitely a bonus as well.

Hopefully they don't get cracked down on like the other derivatives exchanges previously because they do provide a pretty good user experience.

Main advantage for FTX exchange is the fact that they don't charge any fees for withdrawing Bitcoin from their account to your own wallet, but limits are very low for unverified account without kyc verification.
Giving higher limits would probably put them in the same trouble boat with Binance and draw more attention of regulators on them, so they are still managing to balance that.

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