TL;DR:

The assets price spiked by double digits after the former chief executive officer of FTX supposedly tweeted a simple good morning. The exchange suffered a shocking collapse three years ago, but compensation to affected clients remains in progress.

What Fueled the Pump?

FTT the native token of the now-defunct crypto exchange FTX jumped by 25% on a 24-hour scale, with its price briefly soaring to a four-month high of $1.20. In the following hours, it retraced to the current $1.02.

Source: CoinGecko The massive green candle is most likely associated with Sam Bankman-Fried (the former CEO of FTX), who broke his silence on X after a long period of inactivity.

Earlier today (September 24), he posted the simple gm, which is short for good morning and is widely used in the crypto community. Many members often start their day with that abbreviation to signal positivity, optimism, and interact with their followers.

Some were left baffled after SBFs post since he is in prison serving a 25-year sentence for orchestrating one of the largest financial frauds in history. A few hours after the gm interaction, there was another announcement reading:

No, SBF is not posting himself from prison. Im a friend posting on his behalf.

Earlier this year, SBF (or another person who manages his X account) triggered another major price pump for FTT by sharing a ten-part thread on layoffs and employment issues. His opening post was:

I have a lot of sympathy for government employees: I, too, have not checked my email for the past few (hundred) days.

He later said that firing people is one of the hardest things to do in the world, adding that it is often the companys fault for hiring too many employees and then having no idea what to do with them.

It remained unclear whether that was an attempt by SBF to weigh in on the US governments plans at the time to get rid of federal employees who are not productive at work.

Some also saw his interaction as an attempt to win a pardon from President Donald Trump, who shortly after stepping into the White House granted amnesty to Ross Ulbricht (as promised).

Whats Going on With FTX?

The meltdown of the exchange towards the end of 2022 resulted in multi-billion-dollar losses for its creditors and sent shockwaves through the entire crypto industry. After insolvency, FTXs management was taken over by restructuring professionals tasked with recovering assets for affected users, among other goals.

The FTX Recovery Trust has already distributed a substantial amount of funds and recently announced the next phase of the process that will begin on September 30. Initially, it will focus on smaller creditors and retail traders, recovering around 120% of their claims. It is worth noting that larger institutional clients with bigger claims will receive less generous payouts.

US customers will get an additional 40% of their claims, bringing their total recovery to 95%, while those who used FTXs international arm are entitled to a total of 78%. General unsecured and digital asset loan claims are set to be repaid at a 24% rate, bringing overall recoveries up to 85%.