The crypto ecosystem is still bearing the brunt of the collapse of the well-established exchange FTX. From the beginning, several entities have been showing interest to aid Sam Bankman-Fried’s bankrupt company. Binance contemplated tossing a life-saving jacket initially but backed off eventually. Around the same time, Tron’s Justin Sun claimed that he was putting together a solution together with FTX to “initiate a pathway forward.”
Ripple is looking to consider deals
However now, per a recently shaped development, blockchain payment company Ripple is interested in buying certain assets of beleaguered crypto exchange FTX.
Also Read: Will Ripple end up sharing the same fate as FTX, BlockFi?
Talking to The Sunday Times, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said that former FTX CEO Bankman-Fried called him two days before the company filed for bankruptcy as he sought to round up investors to rescue the business. At that time, the two discussed if there were FTX-owned businesses that Ripple “would want to own.”
Garlinghouse said,
“Part of my conversation [with SBF] was if he needs liquidity, maybe there are businesses that he has bought or he has that we would want to own. Maybe there’s investments that we would want own. Would we have bought some of those from him? I definitely think that was on the table.”
In fact, FTX’s executive also had a similar conversation with Binance’s executive Changpeng Zhao. When SBF approached CZ, the latter thought he was going to ask for an OTC deal to buy the FTT tokens to silence the noise in the market. Nevertheless, in the call, the former FTX chief “very quickly alluded that they’re in big trouble, and they’re looking for a buyout.” CZ further asserted that the knew that SBF was “desperate” when he came to him.
Read More – Binance’s CZ on SBF: ‘Only a Psychopath Can Write That Tweet’
Elaborating on why the deals could prove to be a “harder path to transact,” Garlinghouse said,
“Now with the bankruptcy proceeding path in the US, it’ll be very different than it would have been one-to-one. I’m not saying we won’t look at those things – I’m sure we will. But it’s a harder path to transact.”
Nevertheless, as reported towards the end of last week, there seems to be a jurisdiction dispute at this stage between the US and the Bahamas. The Bahamas-based company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the US at the beginning of November.
A recently issued statement by the Securities Commission of The Bahamas noted,
“It is not the understanding of the Commission that FDM [FTX Digital Markets Ltd.] is a party to the US Chapter 11 Bankruptcy proceedings.”
Read More: Bahamas Securities Regulator Takes Full Control of FTX’s Digital Assets