Liquid, a cryptocurrency exchange based in Japan, has made an announcement about the assets of its customers.
The exchange is owned by FTX, which filed for bankruptcy back in November 2022. As the FTX exchange crashed, the regulators in Japan asked Liquid to cease its operations in the country as well.
After a few days, the FTX exchange ended up filing bankruptcy, which meant that Liquid also had to comply with the bankruptcy regulations.
However, a motion was filed on behalf of the Liquid exchange at the US bankruptcy court by the legal teams of FTX.
The motion requested the court to let the Japan-based exchange release funds belonging to the users. The exchange officials revealed that once they get the approval, they will start releasing the funds.
Liquid Announces Funds Release for Customers
The officials at the Liquid exchange have announced that they will start releasing the funds belonging to the users starting in 2023.
This is a huge deal for the entire cryptocurrency community based in Japan, especially the Liquid investors. As the exchange ceased its operations, the users were deprived of their funds.
The funds were then locked as part of the bankruptcy requirement. However, it seems that the Japanese exchange has received approval from the US bankruptcy court to proceed with the release of funds.
The officials are confident that they will be able to return the funds belonging to their users starting in 2023.
Statement Issued by Liquid
The officials at Liquid issued a public statement on December 29 through their blog, addressing the same matter.
The platform announced that they are in the process of finalizing the funds that they have to return to the users. These funds belong to multiple platforms operating in Japan under the FTX brand.
The officials confirmed that they are in the final phases of getting done with the funds release process. They are going through the necessary formalities and once that is done, they will start releasing the funds.
Their aim is to return the funds to the users as early as possible. They confirmed that the funds of two major exchanges based in Japan will be released.
The names of these exchanges are Liquid Japan and FTX Japan. Both exchanges had been operating under the FTX brand and are currently not operating.
Liquid has announced that they will be providing more details on the matter in the month of January. They are confident that they will be able to start returning the funds in January.
The withdrawals System is Being Worked on
Initially, cryptocurrency investors were concerned if they will get full funds or not.
However, the exchange has not provided any further details on the matter. So far, they have confirmed that they were going through the necessary procedures to ensure that the withdrawal access is granted in 2023.
They want to ensure that they come up with a withdrawals portal that the users will be able to use to withdraw their funds.
This indicates that the exchange may not be holding back any funds belonging to the users. This could be a relief for the users of the exchanges.
This may eventually bring back the lost trust among the Japanese users for respective exchanges.
There is Hope for the Liquid Exchange
When Liquid filed a motion at the US bankruptcy court, they all filed a request at the Financial Services Agency (FSA) of Japan.
They requested the FSA to look into their request of letting the exchanges operate. However, they submitted their request accompanied by a business retrieval strategy.
They came up with the entire plan of how they could bring their business back to an operational state ensuring no hiccups would come their way in the future.
However, the FSA had not responded to their application. Now that the exchanges have announced releasing the funds of the users, the regulator may review their plan, and may give them another chance.
