According to Bloomberg, a small group of FTX customers who hold “Sam Coins” are demanding hundreds of millions of dollars from the bankrupt cryptocurrency company, claiming that even though these coins are closely associated with convicted founder Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), their holders should also be compensated.
Investors holding tokens such as Serum (SRM), Maps (MAPS), and Oxygen (OXY) are requesting that Judge John Dorsey of the US Bankruptcy Court reject the company’s expert conclusion that these cryptocurrencies are nearly worthless, forcing FTX to increase the value of these coins. Court documents show that before relinquishing control of FTX, SBF created Serum and gained control of the other two tokens through transactions.
These customers and FTX made their final statements in court on Tuesday, the 26th, and Dorsey did not disclose when he would make a ruling.
Points of contention
Judge Dorsey asked both sides how they assess the value of cryptocurrencies, stating that unlike property or stocks, tokens have “no intrinsic value” and “here, the only value comes from the trading itself. As far as I know, cryptocurrency trading is based on emotion, nothing else.”
FTX argued in a court filing that when it filed for bankruptcy in November 2022, the company held over 95% of the disputed tokens, far exceeding the amount that could be sold, even if these tokens were not tainted by fraudulent activities that led to FTX’s collapse. FTX’s advisors have requested the judge’s approval of their estimation, which states that two of the tokens are worthless, and the third token is only worth a few cents.
Token holders claim that this estimation is flawed and presented their own method of calculating token value in court. According to their method, these cryptocurrencies should be valued at hundreds of millions of dollars. These customers have filed claims demanding repayment based on their calculation results.
Counsel for the creditors, Kurt Gwynne, told the judge that FTX hired experts to evaluate the tokens but took measures to ensure the valuation was as low as possible. He stated, “Every instruction from FTX was to deflate the value.”
Additionally, FTX’s lawyers stated that other former FTX customers are likely to recover 100% of their funds invested on the platform because the dollars, bitcoins, and other assets they invested in still hold value. The company also claimed to have approximately $6.4 billion in cash.
