{"id":8476,"date":"2022-11-11T17:52:46","date_gmt":"2022-11-11T17:52:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/?p=8476"},"modified":"2022-11-11T17:52:47","modified_gmt":"2022-11-11T17:52:47","slug":"ftx-and-tron-have-launched-a-highly-suspicious-withdrawal-scheme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/?p=8476","title":{"rendered":"FTX and TRON Have Launched a Highly Suspicious Withdrawal Scheme"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\namzn_assoc_placement = \"adunit0\";\r\namzn_assoc_tracking_id = \"totafreearti-20\";\r\namzn_assoc_ad_mode = \"search\";\r\namzn_assoc_ad_type = \"smart\";\r\namzn_assoc_marketplace = \"amazon\";\r\namzn_assoc_region = \"US\";\r\namzn_assoc_default_search_phrase = \"crypto\";\r\namzn_assoc_default_category = \"All\";\r\namzn_assoc_search_bar = \"false\";\r\namzn_assoc_title = \"\";\r\namzn_assoc_rows =\"1\";\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"\/\/z-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/widgets\/onejs?MarketPlace=US\"><\/script><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<h3>Key Takeaways<\/h3>\n<p>FTX is enabling its users to withdraw their funds, but only if they buy select tokens from the TRON network.<br \/>\nThese tokens\u2014TRX, BTT, JST, SUN, and HT\u2014are trading at a steep mark-up on FTX compared to other platforms.<br \/>\nSome suspect FTX may be trying to arbitrage its way into plugging the $9.4 billion hole in its balance sheet.<\/p>\n<p>Share this article<\/p>\n<p>Some FTX users can now withdraw their funds from the exchange, but only by surrendering 80% of the value of their portfolio to arbitrageurs.<\/p>\n<h2>A Deal With the Devil<\/h2>\n<p>FTX has a questionable rescue plan for some of its users.<\/p>\n<p>The collapsing crypto exchange announced today that it had reached an agreement with the TRON blockchain to allow holders of TRX, BTT, JST, SUN, and HT\u2014the major coins of the TRON ecosystem\u2014to withdraw their tokens from FTX at 18:30 UTC.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Rumors of TRON\u2019s involvement began circulating late yesterday, and the official announcement sent the tokens soaring in price on the exchange. At the time of writing, TRX is trading on FTX for $0.32, BTT for $0.00000382, JST for $0.17, SUN for $0.029, and HT for $29.8, though prices are rapidly evolving. These are significantly different prices from the quotes found outside of the exchange: on Binance, TRX is trading for $0.05 and BTT for $0.00000073, and on Huobi Global JST is exchanging for $0.023, SUN for $0.0057, and HT for $6.35.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>This means that FTX users, should they wish to withdraw their funds, must accept to buy TRON coins from FTX at a significant markup compared to the price at which they will be able to sell them on solvent exchanges. In other words, they will only be able to withdraw their funds from FTX if they voluntarily take a loss ranging from 78% to 86%.<\/p>\n<p>Worse still, it appears that TRON will only deploy $13 million worth of funds into FTX\u2019s books for the time being, meaning that there are no guarantees that users will be able to withdraw their funds even if they buy the coins at exorbitant prices.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The scheme obviously sets up huge arbitrage opportunities for any market-makers with access to FTX\u2019s order books, as it allows them to buy \u201ccheap\u201d TRON tokens from solvent exchanges and sell them to FTX customers for much higher prices. As it so happens, Alameda Research\u2014the quant trading company founded by FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried\u2014is known for specializing in arbitrage.<\/p>\n<p>In the end, what matters is that FTX may be attempting to partially plug the $9.4 billion hole in its balance sheet by forcing its captive users to surrender about 80% of their portfolio to the arbitrageurs it has set up (with no guarantee that they will be able to withdraw their funds). It\u2019s notable that while FTX announced the TRON scheme only an hour ago, the five coins selected have been trading at marked-up prices since 05:00 or 06:00 UTC\u2014depending on the token\u2014or about 11 or 12 hours before the announcement.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>It would therefore be quite natural to suspect that FTX is purposefully inflating the price of its tokens, that it gave a head start to insiders, or both. The suspicion is exacerbated by on-chain data indicating that select FTX users were allowed to withdraw funds through the Ethereum network. It took more than two hours for the official FTX account to clarify that these withdrawals were enabled for certain Bahamanian customers in accordance with that country\u2019s regulations. FTX is headquartered in the Bahamas.<\/p>\n<p><i>Disclaimer: At the time of writing, the author of this piece owned BTC, ETH, and several other cryptocurrencies.<\/i><\/p>\n<p>Share this article<\/p>\n<p>The information on or accessed through this website is obtained from independent sources we believe to be accurate and reliable, but Decentral Media, Inc. makes no representation or warranty as to the timeliness, completeness, or accuracy of any information on or accessed through this website. Decentral Media, Inc. is not an investment advisor. We do not give personalized investment advice or other financial advice. The information on this website is subject to change without notice. Some or all of the information on this website may become outdated, or it may be or become incomplete or inaccurate. We may, but are not obligated to, update any outdated, incomplete, or inaccurate information.<\/p>\n<p>You should never make an investment decision on an ICO, IEO, or other investment based on the information on this website, and you should never interpret or otherwise rely on any of the information on this website as investment advice. We strongly recommend that you consult a licensed investment advisor or other qualified financial professional if you are seeking investment advice on an ICO, IEO, or other investment. We do not accept compensation in any form for analyzing or reporting on any ICO, IEO, cryptocurrency, currency, tokenized sales, securities, or commodities.<\/p>\n<p>See full terms and conditions.<\/p>\n<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\namzn_assoc_placement = \"adunit0\";\r\namzn_assoc_tracking_id = \"totafreearti-20\";\r\namzn_assoc_ad_mode = \"search\";\r\namzn_assoc_ad_type = \"smart\";\r\namzn_assoc_marketplace = \"amazon\";\r\namzn_assoc_region = \"US\";\r\namzn_assoc_default_search_phrase = \"bitcoin\";\r\namzn_assoc_default_category = \"All\";\r\namzn_assoc_search_bar = \"false\";\r\namzn_assoc_title = \"\";\r\namzn_assoc_rows =\"1\";\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"\/\/z-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/widgets\/onejs?MarketPlace=US\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/cryptobriefing.com\/ftx-and-tron-have-launched-a-highly-suspicious-withdrawal-scheme\/?utm_source=category_feed&#038;utm_medium=rss\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Key Takeaways FTX is enabling its users to withdraw their funds, but only if they buy select tokens from the TRON network. These tokens\u2014TRX, BTT, JST, SUN, and HT\u2014are trading at a steep mark-up on FTX compared to other platforms. Some suspect FTX may be trying to arbitrage its way into plugging the $9.4 billion [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8477,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-market-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8476"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8476\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8478,"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8476\/revisions\/8478"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}