The cyrptocurrency exchange FTX, operating from the domains FTX.com and FTX.us in the US, has filed for bankruptcy.
West Realm Shires Services Inc. is the mother company of FTX and filed for Chapter 11 as seen in this memo.
Founder Sam Bankman-Fried has also stepped down as CEO. Approximately 130 additional affiliated companies are part of the proceedings, including Alameda Research, and FTX.us, the company’s U.S. subsidiary.
FTX indicates it has more than 100,000 creditors, assets in the range of $10 billion to $50 billion, as well as liabilities in the range of $10 billion to $50 billion. It’s interesting to note that FTX was founded in 2019 and as of February 2022 had over one million users.
The domain name FTX.com was acquired sometime in 2019, after being listed for sale by a company called TokenDomains, operating from the domain name TokenDomains.com. That company’s web site no longer resolves, although the domain is still registered and listed for sale on Afternic/GoDaddy.
Most likely, whoever set up TokenDomains.com did so to sell premium domains related to the cryptocurrency and token craze of recent years. FTX.com was in the possession of Chinese domain investors in the mid/late 2010s.
A long time ago, the three letter domain FTX.com was owned by Greg Ricks, founder of Motherboards.com and former owner of DNForum. He most likely sold it to Chinese domain investors before 2015.
Meanwhile, FTX.us was sold in 2020 by KGK Enterprizes, operating from KGK.us. There are no records of either sale at NameBio.com and no reports on how much FTX.com or FTX.us might have sold for.
In the Chapter 11 process, the domain assets of FTX might go into a liquidation sale and back into the domain aftermarket.
