FTX working to secure assets after 'unauthorised' transactions

The new CEO of troubled cryptocurrency platform FTX said Saturday the company was making "every effort to secure all assets" following unauthorised transactions potentially worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

"Unauthorised access to certain assets has occurred," CEO John Ray said in a statement posted to Twitter by FTX's general counsel, Ryne Miller.

FTX officials did not detail the quantity of unauthorised transactions made, but cryptocurrency analysis firm Elliptic said in a report published Saturday that "$477 million is suspected to have been stolen."

More than "$663 million in various tokens" had been drained from FTX's wallets only 24 hours after it filed for bankruptcy, Elliptic said, with the difference "believed to have been moved into secure storage by FTX themselves."

FTX US and FTX.com "continue to make every effort to secure all assets, wherever located," Ray, who specialises in corporate turnarounds, said in the statement.

The announcement comes a day after FTX filed for bankruptcy, part of a stunning collapse that has reverberated through the relatively young sector, sending other cryptocurrencies plummeting and drawing scrutiny from government regulators.

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Additionally, the platform's chief executive, 30-year-old Sam Bankman-Fried, once considered a star in the freewheeling cryptocurrency world, resigned.

As recently as 10 days ago, FTX was considered the world's second-largest cryptocurrency platform, at one point valued at $32 billion.

But the company is now left trying to reassure a sceptical public.

"Among other things, we are in the process of removing trading and withdrawal functionality and moving as many digital assets as can be identified to a new cold wallet custodian," Ray said in the statement.