FTX Japan to allow withdrawals from February

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FTX Japan’s customers will be able to regain access to and withdraw their funds as of February, the exchange has announced. While its global parent company collapsed in November, FTX Japan was immune from the contagion as stringent local laws required segregating its customer funds from the Sam Bankman-Fried conglomerate.

FTX Japan announced through a blog post said that it had initiated efforts geared towards refunding its users.

「お客様への資産返還に関するご案内」を掲載致しました。こちらをご確認ください。https://t.co/9WNNfBksdx

— FTX Japan (@FTX_JP) December 29, 2022

FTX filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection in the U.S. after SBF’s fraudulent and negligent management was exposed by a bank run sparked by Changpeng Zhao and Binance. Over 130 affiliates and subsidiaries were affected. While FTX Japan was initially indicated to be one of the impacted firms, it was later revealed that it had not been affected by the contagion. Since then, it has reassured its users that it was working to restore its systems and break free from SBF’s collapsed exchange empire.

“For the assets entrusted to us by our customers at FTX Japan and Liquid Japan, we are proceeding with system development so that withdrawals will be possible from the Liquid Japan web version. Specifically, you will be able to check your FTX Japan balance from the Liquid Japan web version, and then you will be able to withdraw/take out. Customers using the Liquid Japan platform will be able to withdraw as usual,” the blog announcement read.

SBF acquired Liquid Japan in February last year as he sought to expand his empire in the East Asian nation. In June, he launched FTX Japan, absorbing Liquid into the new entity.

FTX Japan’s customers will now be required to open Liquid accounts, the blog says. They will then be able to check their balances and transfer their assets to Liquid. Once the funds are on Liquid, they can then be able to withdraw to other wallets, with the team estimating this will be possible as of February.

There have been questions about whether the FTX Japan-to-Liquid route would be possible. As CoinGeek reported, some of Liquid’s former employees suspected FTX could have a backdoor into Liquid, allowing SBF and his cronies, or even foreign authorities, to access Japanese users’ funds. That most of Liquid’s and FTX Japan’s engineers had quit didn’t help the issue.

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