Did FTX Accidentally Do Investors a Favor?

Today, the FTX bankruptcy estate recorded another batch of approved customer claims.

As you may know, FTX clients are being repaid in U.S. dollars, based on the market prices of their crypto holdings at the time the company filed for bankruptcy in November 2022. And that gave me a slightly crazy idea: what if keeping crypto on FTX actually turned out to be… profitable for the remaining customers?

Why would that even be possible? Simple. I constantly hear the same complaint: nothing except Bitcoin goes up in the long run. All altcoins eventually bleed out over a multi-year horizon. To be honest, I’ve often thought the same.

So here was a chance to test that assumption. If crypto prices really trend downward over time, then some former FTX users might end up receiving more in USD today than their coins are currently worth.

I checked ten of the largest cryptocurrencies by market cap at the time of FTX’s collapse. Here’s what the numbers say:

• Bitcoin (BTC)
  Then: $16,871
  Now: $69,750
  Change: +313% (4.1x)
• Ethereum (ETH)
  Then: $1,258
  Now: $2,080
  Change: +65% (1.6x)
• Solana (SOL)
  Then: $16.24
  Now: $87.00
  Change: +435% (5.3x)
• BNB
  Then: $290.00
  Now: $629.00
  Change: +116% (2.1x)
• XRP
  Then: $0.38
  Now: $1.47
  Change: +286% (3.8x)
• Bitcoin Cash (BCH)
  Then: $103.00
  Now: $565.00
  Change: +448% (5.4x)
• TRON (TRX)
  Then: $0.056
  Now: ~$0.28
  Change: +400% (5.0x)
• Avalanche (AVAX)
  Then: $14,32
  Now: $48,50
  Change: +238% (x3.4)
• Dogecoin (DOGE)
  Then: $0.085
  Now: $0.105
  Change: +23% (1.2x)
• ADA
  Then: $0.35
  Now: $0.28
  Change: -20%

Quite a surprise.

It turns out crypto can grow over the long term after all. Only ADA is currently below its November 2022 price.

And once again, I failed to find a convincing argument for keeping your crypto on an exchange.

Store your cryptocurrencies in self-custody. And if you need to exchange one cryptocurrency for another - use rabbit.io.