Crypto exchange tokens have largely shrugged off their FTX bankruptcy lows and recovered or reached new all-time highs as part of the ongoing bull market.
At the time of publication, Binance's native token, BNB, is currently trading at $352, representing a gain of 32% from November 2022, when troubled cryptocurrency exchange FTX declared bankruptcy and spread panic across the crypto exchange ecosystem.
In addition, BNB is trading higher than its previous highs in June 2023, when news of an ongoing investigation into the exchange by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) lawsuit was first uncovered. The exchange has since settled with the DOJ for $4.3 billion, while the SEC lawsuit is ongoing.
Exchange tokens, issued by centralized entities themselves, allow users to gain trading benefits on exchanges. They can also be used to pay for gas fees and engage in decentralized finance on blockchains created by centralized exchanges. Some exchange tokens also allow users to participate in the platform's governance activities.
Meanwhile, OKX exchange's native token OKB has seen a gain of 132% from its FTX lows, with a total gain of 3,227% since its inception in May 2019. On January 25, the OKB token witnessed a massive flash crash, wiping out nearly $6.5 billion in a matter of minutes before fully recovering and reaching new all-time highs. A brief market sell-off that day had caused multiple leveraged liquidations in pledged lending, margin trading, and cross-currency transactions within the OKX platform, causing the flash crash. The exchange has since compensated affected users via an airdrop.
Likewise, Bitget exchange's BGB token has rallied to all-time highs of $1.03, with a yearly gain of 159%. Last September, the exchange pledged a $100 million fund, dubbed "EmpowerX," dedicated to blockchain, AI, and Web3 projects. Gracy Chen, managing director of Bitget, said at the time that the company expects more investments, mergers, and acquisitions in the coming months as the centralized exchange landscape evolves with changes in regulations.
Unsurprisingly, FTX's FTT token has lost over 90% of its value compared to its pre-bankruptcy highs. Although the exchange expects to fully repay customers, excluding bankruptcy fees, the exchange itself will not restart.
“No investor is ready to commit the needed capital to a restart of the offshore exchange, nor has a buyer emerged for that exchange as a going concern," said bankruptcy lawyer Andy Dietderich. “The costs and risks of creating a viable exchange from what Mr. Bankman-Fried left in the dumpster were simply too high.”
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