Visa terminates partnership with FTX cryptocurrency exchange

The international payment system Visa announced on Sunday, November 13, the termination of agreements on the issuance of debit cards in partnership with the FTX cryptocurrency exchange. This decision was made after the announcement of the bankruptcy of the exchange and the start of investigations against the company by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Bahamas Securities Commission, where the crypto exchange is registered.

“The FTX situation is unfortunate and we are closely monitoring developments,” a Visa spokesman told Reuters. “We have terminated our global agreements with FTX, and the US debit card program is being phased out by their issuer.”

FTX and Visa announced their partnership in early October. The program involved the issuance of Visa debit cards linked to exchange user accounts in more than 40 countries.

FTX filed for bankruptcy on November 11. The company has filed an application under Sec. 11 of the US Bankruptcy Code, which allows business reorganization. In a company statement, published on her Twitter account, the resignation of the head of the FTX Group, Sam Bankman-Fried, was also reported.

This step was preceded scandal around the FTX crypto exchange due to liquidity problems, which caused the collapse of the FTT token of this exchange, and then bitcoin, the quotes of which were updated for a two-year minimumdropping to $ 17.1-17.2 thousand. FTX itself in just a few days turned from a structure worth $ 32 billion into bankruptcy.

November 11 Bahamas Securities Commission froze the assets of the FTX operator, justifying this by the need to preserve assets and stabilize the exchange.

November 12 Reuters reportedthat Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the FTX crypto exchange, secretly transferred $ 10 billion of client funds to the accounts of the trading company Bankman-Fried Alameda Research. At the same time, about $ 2 billion of them disappeared. Later, the chief lawyer of the American division of the FTX crypto exchange, Ryan Miller confirmed information about “unauthorized transactions” in the bankrupt platform, but did not specify the amount of the missing funds.

On Sunday, November 13, it became known that Royal Bahama Police launched an investigation into possible violations against the exchange. Its result may be the filing of criminal charges against the management of the exchange.

Kirill Sarkhanyants