A US court says FTX Trading and affiliated debtors can start selling $744M worth of Grayscale and Bitwise shares; GBTC accounts for 22.3M units worth $597M
Anna Baydakova / The Block :
Context & Ripple Effects
This is the next step after FTX received permission to sell, stake and hedge a broader crypto portfolio for creditor repayment, including substantial Solana holdings. It turns a court-approved wind-down strategy into a specific potential sale of Grayscale and Bitwise products.
The authorization later became consequential when reporting indicated FTX had sold roughly 22 million GBTC shares; a separate Genesis ruling showed that other bankrupt crypto estates also held large Grayscale trust positions eligible for creditor repayment.
First-order effects
- FTX's debtors can liquidate up to $744 million of fund shares, with the 22.3 million GBTC units representing most of the authorized value, and direct proceeds toward the estate's creditor process.
- Grayscale and Bitwise face a potentially sizeable institutional seller in their products, although the ruling authorizes sales rather than requiring an immediate disposal.
Second-order effects
- The approval creates a visible source of potential GBTC supply; subsequent reported sale of roughly 22 million GBTC shares by FTX shows why estate transactions can become a focus for trust-share flows.
- Other restructuring cases gain a clearer operational precedent for converting crypto-fund holdings into creditor distributions, later reflected in Genesis's approved sale of Grayscale trust shares.
Third-order effects
- If multiple failed crypto firms unwind through public trust products, bankruptcy estates may become recurring, price-sensitive sellers rather than passive holders in those markets.
- The pattern could increase pressure for liquidation plans that manage execution risk and creditor recovery together, particularly where a single trust product concentrates an estate's exposure.
The trend: Crypto-bankruptcy wind-downs are increasingly routing large, concentrated digital-asset exposures through court-supervised sales of listed trust products.