- These are the costs for the 90 days since filing
- They represent 10% of the company’s total cash resources
- The most expensive cryptocurrency exchange is the lawyers
In the 90 days since bankruptcy, the FTX exchange has spent $200 million.. This money went to pay the fees of hundreds of lawyers, financial consultants, tax experts and other specialists. The data comes from a study conducted by a court appraiser.
Catherine Stadler, a collections expert, believes the amounts are reasonable:
“These lawsuits seem very expensive by any measure.. But you have to consider that already at the end of January, lawyers and other professionals have worked almost 35,000 billable hours. That’s the equivalent of four people working for a year.”
She added that the amount spent represents 2% of all the cryptocurrency’s property assets.. And 10% of the reported funds.
The FTX bankruptcy proceeding involved 242 attorneys.. Of those, 46 are high-end professionals who demand more than $2,000 per hour of work.
The most money went to Sullivan & Cromwell.. This law firm received about $42 million in commissions and awards already during the first period of the case. And restructuring company Alvarez & Marsal North America made $28 million in bankruptcy.
It was recently revealed that FTX spent $122 million on advisors from February to April. Of that, $4 million went to employee bonuses.
Now FTX is going through a restructuring and plans to relaunch as FTX 2.0.