Cryptocurrency exchange FTX is seeking to dismiss investors’ claims for “Sam Coins” in an ongoing bankruptcy case by arguing that they should be considered worthless. FTX made this argument during a court hearing on March 26, where the company’s lawyers asked the Delaware bankruptcy judge, John Dorsey, to heavily discount customer claims for several digital tokens associated with FTX founder Sam “SBF” Bankman-Fried, who is currently in jail. The tokens in question are the native tokens of travel platform Maps (MAPS), DeFi brokerage Oxygen (OXY), decentralized exchange Serum (SERUM), and hybrid blockchain Boba (BOBA). FTX attorney Brian Glueckstein argued that these claims should be heavily discounted or reduced to zero. However, the investors claimed that the tokens held significant value, with calculations presented in court showing their worth in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
FTX’s valuation expert, Sabrina Howell, stated that due to FTX holding more than 95% of the OXY and MAP tokens, which were closely tied to SBF, it would take decades to liquidate them. However, creditor attorney Kurt Gwynne argued that FTX had hired experts to unfairly provide low estimates. Based on FTX’s analysis, claims associated with MAPS and OXY tokens, valued at over $600 million at current rates, should be considered worthless. Claims associated with SERUM tokens, valued at $509 million, should be discounted by approximately 58%. The FTX customers, on the other hand, requested that the estimates provided by FTX’s lawyer be overruled, asserting that the four digital assets in question, the Sam Coins, were still worth over $1.1 billion in total.
Judge Dorsey acknowledged the difficulty in accurately quantifying the value of cryptocurrency and stated that digital assets have “no inherent value.” He further expressed that the only value they possess is derived from trading and sentiment. After hearing arguments from both sides, Judge Dorsey stated that he would consider the matter before ruling on how to estimate the value of the disputed crypto assets.
The article also mentions the native tokens for Maps (MAPS), Oxygen (OXY), and Serum (SERUM) and provides information on their current trading prices and performance.
It concludes by mentioning that Bankman-Fried, the founder of FTX, was found guilty of fraud charges brought against him by the U.S. government. The prosecution has proposed a maximum 50-year sentence, but Bankman-Fried’s lawyers argue that this unfairly portrays him as a “depraved super-villain.”