How the FTX group was organized and owned

analysisIn his first-day declaration of 17 November 2022, John J. Ray III, chief executive of the debtors, described the FTX Group as four groups of businesses he called silos: the WRS Silo around West Realm Shires Inc. and FTX US; the Alameda Silo around Alameda Research LLC; the Ventures Silo of Clifton Bay Investments LLC, Island Bay Ventures Inc., FTX Ventures Ltd and related companies; and the Dotcom Silo of FTX Trading Ltd. and its subsidiaries, which ran FTX.com and similar exchanges outside the United States. Each silo, Ray stated, was controlled by Sam Bankman-Fried; Gary Wang and Nishad Singh held minority stakes, and the WRS and Dotcom silos also had outside equity investors, none of whom apart from the co-founders held more than 2% of any silo. The debtors' first-day timeline dates the founding of the Dotcom Silo by Bankman-Fried, Wang and Singh to April 2019. ^{1 2}

analysisThe debtors' first interim report on control failures (9 April 2023) adds that the group had no ultimate parent company able to direct its subsidiaries. It was a web of parallel corporate chains with various owners and interests, all under Bankman-Fried's ultimate control, and no comprehensive organizational chart of the group existed before the end of 2021. ³

analysisRay put Bankman-Fried's holdings at about 53% of West Realm Shires Inc., 90% of Alameda Research LLC and 67% of Clifton Bay Investments LLC directly, and about 75% of FTX Trading Ltd. indirectly; the remaining quarter of FTX Trading was held by a dispersed group of about 600 outside investors, and FTX Trading and West Realm Shires were the only debtors with third-party equity. The debtors' presentation for the first-day hearing charts the silos for recovery purposes: Bankman-Fried with 52.99% of the WRS Silo (Wang 16.93%, Singh 7.83%, outside investors 22.25%), 90% of the Alameda Silo (Wang 10%), 100% of the Ventures Silo, noting that some Ventures entities may have interests held by Wang and Singh, and 75% of the Dotcom Silo (outside investors 25%). The same chart names the independent directors appointed after the filing: Mitchell Sonkin (WRS Silo), Matt Rosenberg (Alameda Silo), Rishi Jain (Ventures Silo) and Joseph Farnan and Matt Doheny (Dotcom Silo). ^{1 2}

analysisThe corporate ownership statement filed with the petitions on 11 November 2022 states that about 75% of FTX Trading Ltd. was owned by Paper Bird Inc. and about 25% by outside investors, with no corporation identified as owning 10% or more of Paper Bird. Paper Bird's equity holder list shows Bankman-Fried holding all 1,000 of its common shares, and the disclosure statement describes Paper Bird, a debtor in the Ventures Silo, as the holding entity for Bankman-Fried's shares in FTX Trading Ltd. Other debtor filings give different figures: about 80% in the debtors' complaint of 12 July 2023 and 86% in a filing of 11 December 2023, while FTX Trading's statement of financial affairs names Paper Bird as controlling shareholder with 75.00%. The filings do not explain the differences, and none reconciles them with the holdings of the other founders: FTX Trading's own equity holder list shows Nishad Singh with 44,000,000 common shares. ^{1 2 3 4 5 6}

analysisAlameda Research LLC sat outside FTX Trading's chain: the ownership statement identifies no corporate owner of 10% or more of it and lists it as owner of Alameda Research Ltd, North Dimension Inc and North Wireless Dimension Inc, with Alameda Research Ltd in turn owning Euclid Way Ltd and Maclaurin Investments Ltd. The equity holder lists of 9 January 2023 show Bankman-Fried with 90% and Wang with 10% of Alameda Research LLC, and Bankman-Fried with 67%, Wang 23% and Singh 10% of Clifton Bay Investments LLC, formerly Alameda Research Ventures LLC. In the WRS Silo, West Realm Shires Inc. owned West Realm Shires Services Inc. (FTX US) and West Realm Shires Financial Services Inc. ^{1 2 7 8}

analysisRay's declaration says the Dotcom Silo debtors were organized in jurisdictions around the world under the Antigua-organized parent FTX Trading Ltd. and that they also owned more than a dozen non-debtor companies; the disclosure statement adds that the silo included the exchanges run by FTX Japan K.K. and Quoine Pte Ltd and the investment firm FTX EU Ltd. The ownership statement lists 31 companies as wholly owned by FTX Trading Ltd. itself: Allston Way Ltd, Analisya Pte Ltd, Bancroft Way Ltd, Blockfolio Holdings, Inc., Crypto Bahamas LLC, Deep Creek Ltd, FTX (Gibraltar) Ltd, FTX Canada Inc, FTX Crypto Services Ltd., FTX Digital Holdings (Singapore) Pte Ltd, FTX EMEA Ltd., FTX Equity Record Holdings Ltd., FTX Europe AG, FTX Hong Kong Ltd, FTX Japan Holdings K.K., FTX Products (Singapore) Pte Ltd, FTX Property Holdings Ltd, FTX Services Solutions Ltd., FTX Trading GmbH, FTX Turkey Teknoloji ve Ticaret A.Ş., FTX Zuma Ltd, GG Trading Terminal Ltd, Global Compass Dynamics Ltd., Hive Empire Trading Pty Ltd, Innovatia Ltd., Liquid Securities Singapore Pte Ltd, LT Baskets Ltd., Mangrove Cay Ltd, Technology Services Bahamas Limited, West Innovative Barista Ltd. and Western Concord Enterprises Ltd. ^{1 2 3}

analysisBelow them, FTX Japan Holdings K.K. owned FTX Japan K.K., FTX Japan Services KK and Quoine Pte Ltd and about half of Liquid Financial USA Inc., which owned LiquidEX LLC; FTX Japan K.K. owned Quoine India Pte Ltd and Quoine Vietnam Co. Ltd. FTX Europe AG owned FTX Structured Products AG, FTX Switzerland GmbH, FTX Certificates GmbH, K-DNA Financial Services Ltd (later FTX EU Ltd), FTX Exchange FZE, DAAG Trading, DMCC, Altalix Ltd and Tigetwit Ltd, and about 10% of CM-Equity AG. The statement also lists BTC Africa S.A. as wholly owned by FTX Europe AG, a listing that AZA Finance, which counts BTC Africa among its own entities, says was made in error; the record leaves the ownership unresolved. Innovatia Ltd. owned Zubr Exchange Ltd, and FTX Canada Inc owned Bitvo, Inc. Outside FTX Trading's own chain, Paper Bird owned all of FTX Ventures Ltd and of Island Bay Ventures Inc., which the debtors' complaint of 8 November 2024 against SkyBridge describes as a Delaware entity entirely owned by Paper Bird, itself wholly owned by Bankman-Fried. ^{3 4 5 6}

analysisSeveral holdings are recorded differently in different filings. Ray's declaration says FTX Trading Ltd. acquired 51% of Blockfolio, Inc. in 2020, while the ownership statement routes about 52% through Blockfolio Holdings, Inc. and Blockfolio's own holder list shows FTX Trading holding 14,101,493 common shares directly. The ownership statement lists FTX Turkey as wholly owned, but its holder list shows FTX Trading with 80% and an individual with 20%. FTX Zuma Ltd's holder list shows FTX Trading Ltd. with 9,999,999 shares and Bankman-Fried with one. FTX Trading's statement of financial affairs also lists an interest in PT Triniti Investama Berkat in Jakarta, a trading vehicle since 20 May 2021, which a footnote in the debtors' November 2022 chart appears, from the chart's layout, to mark as 99% held by FTX Trading Ltd. ^{1 3 7 8 9}