Just In: Truth Behind El Salvador Crypto Holdings On FTX

After Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz said El Salvador’s crypto holdings are stored in FTX, Binance CEO CZ responded. Speaking to CNBC earlier on Thursday, Novogratz said that the El Salvador government’s crypto was on FTX. He said the El Salvadorean government’s crypto was on FTX and that they were calling for extradition of Sam Bankman-Fried. Interestingly, Galaxy Digital announced that it has slight exposure to FTX.

Mike Novogratz Comment On FTX Holdings

In its third quarter financial results, Galaxy Digital revealed it holds cash and digital assets in FTX. The Mike Novogratz company said it has an exposure of around $76.8 million of cash and digital assets to FTX. Out of this, approximately $47.5 million is currently in the withdrawal process, it mentioned. Speaking about the repercussions of the FTX meltdown, the Galaxy Digital CEO said the fallout will be far but it is not going to stop the underlying community holding together. Certainly not with Bitcoin and Ethereum, he added.

Responding to Novogratz’s claim, CZ said it is not ture. In fact, the Binance CEO said he checked with the country’s President Nayid Bukele on the matter.

“The amount of misinformation is insane. I exchanged messages with President Nayib a few moments ago. He said “we don’t have any Bitcoin in FTX and we never had any business with them. Thank God!”

Following the fact checking from CZ, Novogratz tendered an apology in a statement to the people of El Salvador. He acknowledged that he fell for fake news.

“Apologies to Presidnet Nayib Bukele and the people of El Salvador. I fell for ‘fake news’ and while I mentioned I hadn’t confirmed it, I should have. Thanks CZ for pointing it out. I am a huge fan of what you are doing in El Salvador.”

Galaxy Digital had in the past too faced losses due to a crypto crash incident. In May this year, the company reported a loss of $111.7 million in the first quarter of 2022. The losses were attributed to unrealized losses on digital assets amid continuous fluctuation in the cryptocurrency market.