Is it worth submitting a claim for FTX holdings?

Yes you absolutely want to make sure the claim is correct and settled! Unfortunately the majority of the value was destroyed, but there will be a recovery, that could ultimately be more than 25c on the dollar if you look at the current market pricing, but many unknowns make any real estimation impossible right now. Leaving an incorrect claim would turn that into $0. Kroll makes a ton of errors, and the massive forensic accounting that has gone into rebuilding the debtors' books I'm sure is imperfect as well.

TODOs:

- Gather up all evidence and history relating to the account that can be found. Ideally FTX screenshots or statements, but barring that, any confirmations of USD and/or crypto deposits, withdrawals, trades, and other activity, in all formats, email confirmations, bank statements, crypto transaction histories, etc. to help serve as proof of the claim. You will need to redact any sensitive information, as the proof of claim is generally made public.

- Keep up with the UCC, they primarily post on Twitter - https://twitter.com/FTX_Committee/status/1641569407007707137 says "If you believe you have a net positive account balance on FTX’s exchanges and have not yet received your unique Customer Code from FTX’s claims agent, Kroll, please email FTXInfo@ra.kroll.com." - Emailing this address may be worth a try, but Kroll is difficult to work with, so likely won't help much because I'm sure they have a massive number of inquiries. The UCC also keeps some information at https://dm.epiq11.com/case/ftx/info2

- Work on the proof of claim. There is no huge rush as the bar date has not even been set yet, so make sure you can gather up as much info as possible and fill out the claim form as accurately as possible. Submit it with redacted evidence gathered up. Make sure you get confirmation of receipt.

Once you get the claim issue resolved, one possible outcome to consider if cash is needed before waiting years for the case to settle, is to sell the claim on a reputable market like Xclaim. (Current pricing "up to" 19c, I'm sure it'd be lower for a $50k claim)

Submit a claim. But keep expectations low, i.e. don’t retain counsel. Much of the money is gone. And that which can be recovered will be heavily impaired by legal costs and any senior claims. Sorry for his experience.

My claim in mtgox was worth ~$2000. I almost didn’t file because I was busy running a growing business. Today it is worth 150k. File the claim. You never know what it ends up being.

I don't want to discourage your son but this might set him up for life. Learning not to invest all your savings in high risk investments is a good life lesson. An invaluable one if you ask me. Learning how to hold on to my money took me way too long.

Depends on the coins. If he was holding the worthless FTX tokens, he's been totally swindled. This would need to be litigated as fraud (eg, FTX swindled your son out of money for worthless tokens due to their manipulation) rather than a claim on unreturned cash/other types of coins. I suppose if the trade executed and they credited his account with the proceeds and he just wasn't able to withdrawal, he might get something from a claim.

Yes. It takes years but recovery can be higher than expected. Some Madoff victims ultimately got back something like 80%.

I wouldn’t have high expectations, but it’s probably worth preserving documentation and making sure your claim is considered.

If you're talking about FTX US, and your son instructed them to sell coins, if the trade was executed he may have been credited to his USD balance. If so, these funds would be validly held in his name by Evolve Bank & Trust.

You should review: https://www.getevolved.com/important-information/

> What should FTX customers know about their accounts?

> Evolve understands there is confusion about the status of these accounts. Please know your funds are safe and secure. By law, Evolve is holding onto these balances until the court overseeing the FTX bankruptcy allows us to release these funds.

> Evolve will work with each individual accountholder to ensure accuracy and timely return of the account balances. We urge FTX customers to contact us at support-ftx@getevolved.com for more information.

Evolve is a real bank (outlasted SVB/Silvergate/Signature/[Credit Suisse?]). I'd have to imagine their support is still overloaded, but worth an email nonetheless.

Even if so, I'd caution not to get hopes up too high, because I could imagine some sort of clawback occurring for trades that executed just before trading stopped.

Definitely file a claim because there should be more money available later.

There needs to be class action lawsuits. Funds need to be clawed back from VCs and insiders.

File a claim, there is absolutely no downside to doing so.

What do you mean when you say he instructed them to sell his coins? On the 9th, he could still log into his account. And I don't believe FTX staff were taking phone instructions to buy/sell tokens on behalf of customers.

You need answers to, and ideally proof of, the following:

- token holdings and USD balance before any transactions on the 9th

- token holdings and USD balance after the 9th

I've seen Twitter posts reporting inaccurate claim balances.

And I'm not sure a determination has been made yet on how tokens will be valued. That is, USD value at time of bankruptcy vs USD value at some court appointed date.

Find a community of FTX claimants, possibly on Twitter or similar, so you can stay up to date on the process.

Say he had a $51K portfolio of FTT tokens on the 9th, present value is ~$3K (https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/ftx-token). Higher if he held BTC or ETH.

So first step is to get a clearer picture of what was held. Then he can elect to submit a claim and wait for the process to play out, or he can try to sell his claim to a third party.

I'd be more concerned with helping him out of his unemployment than helping him submit a claim for these funds. A job can bring happiness, fulfillment, and a sense of purpose. I'm doubtful this claim on 50K can achieve that.

That's heartbreaking. I feel for your son.

You should file a claim, but keep expectations low.

These kind of testimonies really drive home what Sam did. Best of luck in your pursuits.

Just gonna say this again “not your keys, not your crypto”