FTX

Once the white knight of crypto, Sam Bankman-Fried now needs someone to bail him out. Illustration by Gracelynn Wan for Forbes; Photos by Saul Loeb/Getty Images.

At that juncture, FTX thought it had enough [money](https://www.forbes.com/sites/mariagraciasantillanalinares/2022/09/27/ftx-pays-14-billion-to-get-voyagers-crypto-customers/?sh=15fe5c744168) to return most of the assets to Voyager owners in hopes of retaining some of them as clients. If it turns out that FTX used them for its own purposes, including possibly lending them to Alameda, that would lift the clients in the hierarchy of who is owed money during the bankruptcy. Despite Bankman-Fried owning a 7.6% stake in the brokerage after he invested around $650 million in May, Tenev insisted there was no direct or material exposure to FTX, adding that his brokerage has seen crypto inflows increase as a result of the turmoil. “FTX was sort of the white knight in Voyager,” says Gayda. With roughly $6 billion in cash at the end of the latest quarter, Robinhood likely won’t be hurt badly even if Bankman-Fried is forced to unload his stake as part of bankruptcy proceedings. If the FTX customers, who will be treated as unsecured creditors in bankruptcy, want to be proactive, they can do more than wait to be rescued. Over 63% of the assets are stablecoins, including tether and dai, which are meant to be fully collateralized with liquid assets and thus shielded from an event like the selloff that has wiped about 20% off of crypto values in the past week. “There’s really a crisis of confidence with respect to customers in the crypto industry,” says Gayda. Investors should “brace themselves for contagion from FTX’s bankruptcy,” Anto Paroian, CEO of crypto hedge fund ARK36, said in emailed comments. Valued at $32 billion in its latest funding round, FTX’s worth has crashed in the span of one week. The main option for FTX customers to recoup at least some of their holdings, says Robert Gayda, partner at Seward & Kissel corporate restructuring and bankruptcy group, is for a “Voyager-style sale” of any remaining crypto assets. Assets still under the company’s control would be put up for sale to the highest bidder.