Insolvent FTX exchange has laid serious allegations against rival crypto exchange, ByBit, filing a $953 million lawsuit against the Dubai-headquartered exchange on Friday in a court in Delaware, United States. 

FTX had stated that Mirana, an investment arm of ByBit, had been an avid user of the FTX crypto exchange for years and had an account with FTX.com that held hundreds of millions of dollars. 

In the filing, FTX bankruptcy advisers accused Mirana of utilizing “special VIP privileges” to facilitate their withdrawals during the period FTX was experiencing insolvency challenges last year. 

“Mirana was an active trader on the FTX.com exchange, with an account balance that had grown to several hundred million dollars during the months leading up to the FTX Group’s collapse. Mirana’s trading activity and affiliation with Bybit also afforded it preferential treatment from FTX.com relative to the average FTX.com customer,” FTX filing stated. 

As stated in the filing, Mirana had successfully achieved withdrawals presently valued at $838 million from FTX. About $500 million of assets withdrawn were collected during the final days of FTX collapse when it had disabled withdrawals. While the remaining $327 million was allegedly transferred through fraudulent means leveraging ByBit’s VIP privileges.

In the lawsuit against ByBit, FTX claimed that ByBit had used unethical tactics to withdraw funds from the insolvent crypto exchange. 

Based on the filing, ByBit’s Mirana had allegedly pressured FTX’s employees to initiate withdrawals from the crypto exchange, effectively decreasing the funds needed to meet the withdrawal requests of non-VIP FTX customers.

FTX also revealed that Mirana had used its control over FTX Group by seizing FTX’s assets on the exchange in an attempt to be first in line to complete their withdrawal process and clear out all the funds in their FTX.com account. 

“Mirana had advantages over the average customer and used every such advantage in furtherance of a fraudulent scheme to have its withdrawal requests prioritized over those of other customers. Among other things, Mirana leveraged its VIP connections to pressure FTX Group employees to fulfill its withdrawal requests as soon as assets became available, further reducing the funds available to meet withdrawal requests by FTX.com’s non-VIP customers,” FTX stated. 

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