FTX sells LedgerX for $50M to affiliate of Miami-based exchange holding company

The futures and options exchange was purchased by FTX.US in 2021 to expand its spot trading services. Three other FTX assets remain up for sale.

FTX announced that it has entered into a purchase agreement with an affiliate of Miami International Holdings to sell its futures and options exchange and clearinghouse LedgerX. 

FTX said in a statement that the total proceeds of the transaction would total about $50 million. The deal still requires the approval of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware. A hearing on the deal is set for May 4.

FTX stated it reached a deal with M7 Holding, a family private equity investment firm based in Akron, Ohio. That firm is an affiliate of Miami International Holdings, which operates several exchanges in the United States and abroad, including the Minneapolis Grain Exchange and the Bermuda Stock Exchange.

MIAX announces that it entered into a purchase agreement to acquire LedgerX.

Mark Wetjen, former CFTC Commissioner and later head of policy + regulatory strategy at FTX US, has been sitting on the board of LedgerX since 2015.

Wetjen was CEO of MIAX Futures for almost 2 years. pic.twitter.com/zFZtqSou8I

— Wave (@waveninja1) April 25, 2023

The bankruptcy court okayed the sale of LedgerX and other FTX assets in January after overcoming a challenge by the U.S. trustee and an ad hoc committee of 18 non-U.S. customers. The assets heading to auction were Embed, LedgerX, FTX Japan and FTX Europe. At the time, 117 parties had expressed interest in those assets.

Related: Swiss court gives green light for FTX to sell its European arm

FTX CEO and chief restructuring officer John Ray III called the sale “an example of our continuing efforts to monetize assets to deliver recoveries to stakeholders.”

FTX.US bought LedgerX in August 2021, enabling it to expand its spot trading services. LedgerX is regulated by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). CFTC chair Rostin Behnam commented in December:

“The limitations of our authority stopped at [LedgerX]. For those same reasons that we were walled off from going past the regulated entity, the other FTX entities were not able to pierce through LedgerX and potentially take customer money, which obviously, as a regulator, is the priority.”

FTX declared bankruptcy in November.

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