New FTX tokens worth about $380 million appear out of thin air

The deployer contract of FTX Exchange (FTT) tokens mysteriously printed 192 million new tokens today and sent them to a freshly created wallet, according to on-chain data. The total value of these tokens at current prices is about $380 million.

The release of the new FTT came without any announcement from the exchange and follows a reported FTX hack on Friday.

As new tokens began flooding onto the market, Binance halted FTT deposits. “Binance has stopped FTT deposit, to prevent potential of questionable additional supplies affecting the market. Also encourage other exchanges to do the same,” Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao said.

The number of freshly created tokens eclipsed FTT’s prior circulating supply, which was about 133 million, according to pseudonymous crypto researcher 0xfoobar.

The FTT token played a crucial role in the problems that reportedly led to the insolvency of FTX and trading firm Alameda. 

FTX first came under pressure following a leaked portion of its sister firm’s balance sheet that showed the large majority of the firm’s assets were denominated in FTT tokens. This triggered a bank run from clients last week, which in a matter of days led to the high-profile implosion of the exchange. 

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