Bahamas securities regulator and financial investigators are investigating potential misconduct over the collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX, the Royal Bahamas Police Force said on Sunday.
“A team of financial investigators from the Financial Crimes Investigation Branch are working closely with the Bahamas Securities Commission to investigate if any criminal misconduct occurred,” the police said in a statement.
FTX did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for a comment.
Visa has terminated global debit card agreements with FTX
Visa Inc, the world's largest payments processor, said on Sunday it was severing its global credit card agreements with collapsed crypto exchange FTX.
"The situation with FTX is unfortunate and we are monitoring developments closely," a Visa spokesperson told Reuters. "We have terminated our global agreements with FTX and their U.S. debit card program is being wound down by their issuer."
FTX and Visa had announced an expanded partnership in early October, including plans to introduce account-linked Visa debit cards in 40 new countries.
Binance halts FTT deposits, CEO says
Cryptocurrency exchange Binance has stopped accepting deposits of FTX’s FTT token on its platform, its chief executive Changpeng Zhao said on Sunday, urging other rival exchanges to do the same.
FTX, which filed for bankruptcy on Friday, was engulfed in more chaos on Saturday when the crypto exchange said it had detected unauthorised access and analysts said hundreds of millions of dollars of assets had been moved from the platform in “suspicious circumstances”.
“(Binance) has stopped FTT deposit, to prevent potential of questionable additional supplies affecting the market. We will monitor the situation,” CEO Zhao said in a tweet.
“FTT contract deployers moved all remaining FTT supply worth $400 million, which should be unlocked in batches. Not too sure what’s going on,” he added, in another tweet.
FTX founder Bankman-Fried says he is in the Bahamas
FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried told Reuters on Saturday that he was in the Bahamas, denying speculation on Twitter that he had flown to South America after the exchange filed for bankruptcy and he was removed as chief executive.
When asked by Reuters whether he had flown to Argentina, Bankman-Fried responded in a text message: “Nope”. He told Reuters he was in the Bahamas.