FTX Collapse: Gibraltar Companies Figure in List of Corporate Vehicles

The crypto world is reeling following the collapse of the FTX centralised cryptocurrency exchange, founded in 2019 and which had over 1 million users in February 2022.

Of the large number of subsidiaries worldwide, two are registered in Gibraltar.

ZUBR Exchange Limited, a Gibraltar-based digital assets derivatives exchange authorised by the Gibraltar Financial Services Commission (GFSC) was acquired by FTX Trading Limited in September 2021.

ZUBR’s sole registered shareholder is Innovatia Limited, a Cypriot company.

According to Companies House in Gibraltar, ZUBR last filed its accounts for the period up to the 21^st of December 2020.

FTX (Gibraltar) Limited, also registered in Gibraltar, has a single shareholder FTX Trading Limited and its sole registered Director is the so-called “King of Crypto”, 30-year-old Samuel Bankman-Fried, who is also a Director of ZUBR.

According to the Financial Times, the FTX group held only $900 million in easily-sellable assets against $9 billion of liabilities the day before it went into bankruptcy late last week.

News from the GFSC is eagerly awaited whilst the Royal Bahamas Police Force is said to be working closely with the Bahamas Securities Commission to investigate whether any criminal misconduct has occurred in relation to FTX Digital Markets Limited, a Bahamian company which has been put into provisional liquidation.

Photo Credit: By Cointelegraph, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=117330237