FTX CEO Says Exchange Could Restart Operations

FTX’s FTT token soared Thursday following news the bankrupt exchange may resume operations.

In an interview published Thursday morning, new CEO John Ray told The Wall Street Journal he had established an internal task force to study the possibility.

“Everything is on the table,” Ray told the Journal. “If there is a path forward on that, then we will not only explore that, we’ll do it.”

FTT jumped more than 35% to $2.46 following the news, according to data from CoinGecko.

FTT Price. Source: Coingecko

FTX has been dormant since November, when, unable to honor customer withdrawal requests, it froze user assets. Founder Sam Bankman-Fried ceded control of the company to Ray on Nov. 11, but has repeatedly said that he regrets the decision.

“It’s ridiculous that FTX US users haven’t been made whole and gotten their funds back yet,” Bankman-Fried wrote in his newsletter on Jan. 12. Bankman-Fried insists the US arm of the Bahamian exchange was solvent and should not have filed for bankruptcy.

He has also criticized Ray’s handling of FTX.com, the central entity in the FTX empire and the one that serviced customers outside the U.S.

“Even now, I believe that if FTX International were to reboot, there would be a real possibility of customers being made substantially whole,” he wrote.

Other stakeholders have suggested as much, Ray told the Journal. Nevertheless, he said FTX has nothing to gain from communicating with its founder.

“We don’t need to be dialoguing with [Bankman-Fried],” he told the Journal. “He hasn’t told us anything that I don’t already know.”