The catastrophic fall of FTX was definitely a shock to the cryptocurrency realm. The $32 billion empire crumbled to the ground in a matter of days. Shortly after FTT’s sharp decline, news of misappropriated user funds and unmanageable debt grew to the point of a Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
But what was even more shocking was the FTX hack that occurred just hours after FTX filed for bankruptcy. Millions were stolen in a hack of the now-bankrupt platform, and there are traces of transactions and reports that the stolen fund was laundered into Bitcoin and Ethereum.
The Department of Justice has launched an investigation to look into the abnormal FTX hack that occurred at a very inappropriate time.
US authorities managed to freeze some of the stolen assets
According to people who are familiar with the matter, the criminal investigation launched by the federal prosecutors will dive deeper into the FTX hack. The authorities were also successful in freezing some of the stolen assets. However, the frozen assets are just like a grain in the desert.
The hacker, if captured, could face 10 years in prison in connection with a computer fraud case. It is also unclear whether the hack was an insider job. The investigators are working closely with Manhattan federal prosecutors to solve the case.
FTX and SBF have seriously disrupted the whole cryptocurrency industry. The slew of events has also alerted global regulators to bring in an urgent regulatory framework. The latest court documents also revealed that SBF borrowed $546 million from Alameda to purchase Robinhood shares.