The estate overseeing the bankrupt FTX crypto exchange as taken control of high-value NFTs worth over $4 million. This is according to a tweet shared by Conor Grogan, the director at Coinbase, on April 26. The list includes items from several blue-chip collections such as BAYC, Azuki, MAYC, BEANZ, and Otherdeed. Now, these digital artworks have been transferred to the estate’s multi-signature wallet.
The tweet indicates that the transfer occurred three months ago, and a deeper look reveals the exact figures. These include 32 BAYC, 29 Otherdeed, 7 Azuki, 2 MAYC, 12 BEANZ, 81 Sandbox LANDs, and 6 Hape Prime NFTs. The latter were bought by Alameda Research for $100,000, according to Grogan.
Most of these NFTs were purchased by FTX back in 2021, when the market was rallying and the exchange tried to establish its own non-fungible token marketplace. As such, FTX spent over $24 million to snap up 101 Bored Apes, which were then transferred to its US subsidiary and listed for a lower price to pull in buyers from established marketplaces. The plan worked, and most of the NFTs were snapped up by collectors fishing for bargains.
It’s confirmed that these Apes now belong to FTX creditors; they were all transferred to the Estate Multisig, along with 7 Azukis, a bunch of Beanz, and a host of other NFTs pic.twitter.com/Vy7XLtgCwE
— Conor (@jconorgrogan) April 26, 2023
Why Would FTX Move all the NFTs to a Single Wallet?
The consolidation of the various NFTs held by FTX into a single wallet has sparked wild speculation within the crypto space. Many see this as a sign of an imminent sale, with funds recouped from these items used to compensate individuals that lost funds on the exchange.
However, there are fears that a liquidation event could hurt the prices of the collections involved, and the individuals overseeing the process may understand this. Therefore, some experts believe FTX might opt to auction the digital artworks, something akin to what the bankrupt Three Arrows Capital did.
The news comes days after FTX agreed to sell LedgerX for $50 million in a bid to recoup some funds to pay debtors.
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