FTX U.S alerted users earlier on Thursday to a potential halt to trading functionality soon, “in a few days.”
The CEO of FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried, also known as “SBF,” issued a lengthy apology and reassured the crypto community that the recent turn of events would only have an impact on FTX international. According to him, “FTX US, the US based exchange that accepts Americans, was not financially impacted by this shitshow.” He assured users that FTX US was “100% liquid” and that “Every user could fully withdraw (modulo gas fees etc)”.
However, a recent announcement on the website of FTX US is starting to cause users to raise an eyebrow, leading many to doubt the veracity of his claim. Trading on FTX US “may be halted in a few days,” according to a banner at the top of the website.
Users were urged to “please close down any positions” they might want to close out of the exchange, but were also assured that “withdrawals are and will remain open.”Since the announcement by Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao that his exchange would liquidate its FTX Token FTT ($3.58), FTX International has experienced liquidity issues holdings.
When users of FTX attempted to withdraw money, CZ’s announcement effectively started a bank run, but the exchange lacked the available liquidity to meet demand. The exchange reportedly needed $8 billion in emergency funding to help cover the withdrawal requests, and Bankman-Fried was looking to raise $3 billion to $4 billion, according to reports that have surfaced in the past week.
