The FTX estate has reached out to more than 75 bidders to evaluate the possibility of relaunching the bankrupt crypto exchange since at least May 2023, according to a stakeholder briefing released on Monday.
Bidders for FTX 2.0 were given a deadline of Sept. 24. “The process is designed to consider varying potential structures, including an acquisition, merger, recapitalization or other transaction to relaunch the FTX.com and/or FTX US exchanges,” according to the filing.
The slide deck doesn't specify who those bidders are, but the Wall Street Journal previously reported that the blockchain technology company Figure has said it was interested in a relaunch of the exchange. Tribe Capital, a venture capital firm, was also reported to be interested in investing in the reboot.
Tribe Capital and FTX’s unsecured creditors’ committee, the legal representatives for those still owed by the bankrupt crypto exchange, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fortune. A spokesperson from Figure as well as lawyers for the FTX estate declined to comment.
The scale of the exploration of FTX’s relaunch is the newest detail to emerge regarding ambitions to sell off, rebrand, or restart an exchange at the heart of one the most heavily watched white-collar criminal cases in the past decade.
In November, FTX, once one of the most popular crypto exchanges in the world, collapsed and declared bankruptcy. Shortly thereafter, the Justice Department charged founder and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried in a sprawling criminal case set to go to trial in less than a month.
John J. Ray III took over as CEO of the FTX estate and said as early as January that it was a possibility that the failed crypto exchange could reboot. Soon, reports of continued negotiations to restart the exchange became public and, in July, according to the same Journal report that named Figure as a potential suitor, an FTX reboot would likely include a rebrand.
FTX’s FTT token has jumped on repeated news of FTX 2.0's potential launch and is trading almost 17% higher as of Monday than at the start of the year.
Update, Sept. 11, 2023: This article has been updated with Figure as well as FTX debtors' decisions to not comment on the filing.
