Lawyers working on the FTX bankruptcy case have filed a lawsuit seeking to regain nearly $1 billion worth of digital assets from crypto platform Bybit, according to court documents filed Thursday in Delaware.
The suit targets Bybit Fintech and its investment unit Mirana, as well as affiliated crypto trading firm Time Research. It also targets several unnamed Singaporean individuals and a Mirana c-suite executive who allegedly benefited from questionable withdrawals from the collapsed FTX exchange.
The filling accused, Mirana used its privileged status to quickly remove the majority of its funds from FTX before the company declared bankruptcy in November 2022. Lawyers claim Mirana pressured FTX staff to speed up its withdrawal requests even though the average customers faced lengthy delays in accessing their money on the failing exchange.
According to the lawsuit filed last week, Bybit's investment arm Mirana managed to withdraw over $327 million from its FTX account even after the exchange halted customer withdrawals on November 8, 2022. They argue the money should be subject to FTX's ongoing bankruptcy proceedings.
The lawsuit comes as Singapore-based Bybit plans to suspend services for UK customers this week before impending regulations take effect. Meanwhile, FTX is working to potentially relaunch operations under new ownership.
Former NYSE President Tom Farley has expressed strong interest in acquiring FTX, as have fintech firm Figure Technologies and investment group Proof. The three are said to be final contenders in ongoing talks.
To raise additional capital, FTX is also liquidating its reserve of Solana tokens, which have surged nearly 50% in price this past week. The exchange's FTT token has likewise seen gains exceeding 30% amid the uncertain revival efforts.