The FTX estate has filed a motion for leave to amend its complaint against HTX, Poloniex, and Justin Sun.
The amended complaint claims that the FTX-Alameda Research estate had approximately $27 million in funds on both HTX (then Huobi) and Poloniex when it declared bankruptcy.
The original version of its complaint was filed in November 2024.
What’s in the lawsuit?
The proposed amended complaint, filed by the FTX Recovery Trust, has as its defendants: Huobi, Poloniex, Sun, and a variety of entities that the suit alleges are “alter-egos” of Sun.
It claims that Alameda Research had funds on both Poloniex and HTX (then Huobi) at the time Alameda Research-FTX declared bankruptcy, “then-valued at approximately $27.5 million.”
Unfortunately for the FTX estate, “both Huobi and Poloniex had locked the Alameda accounts, rendering the debtors unable to recover their assets.”
Read more: Justin Sun-advised HTX has redeemed 7,300 WBTC it did not disclose
The “Alameda Huobi Account” wasn’t opened under Alameda Research’s corporate name but instead “was nominally held in the name of the former Alameda employee.”
This account held approximately $22 million when the FTX-Alameda Research criminal organization declared bankruptcy, according to this complaint. Huobi has yet to turn over these assets.
Similarly for Poloniex, Alameda Research had opened an account associated with Sam Bankman-Fried, which held approximately $5.5 million at the time FTX-Alameda Research declared bankruptcy.
Despite repeated follow-ups, Poloniex and Huobi/HTX have apparently been unwilling to return these assets to the FTX-Alameda Research estate.
Read more: Coinbase to delist WBTC months after Justin Sun controversy
The complaint also noted that Sun maintained accounts on FTX, specifically, through entities called Orange Anthem and Black Anthem.
Orange Anthem, according to this proposed amended complaint, filed a customer proof of claim against the FTX estate for approximately $12 million.
The complaint alleges that “Justin Sun operates Huobi, Poloniex, Orange Anthem, along with his TRON Network, as a unified, integrated enterprise.”
Outside of the complaint, we can find evidence of this overlap in the entities in the support documents for these exchanges; consider the “Poloniex OTC Transaction Policy,” which claims that “the P2P merchants and services on Poloniex are provided by Huobi.”
Furthermore, there are documents on the support sites for both exchanges that discuss a “strategic partnership” between these two exchanges.
Justin Sun’s liquidity ploy
After FTX halted most withdrawals on November 8, Sun “entered into discussions with Bankman-Fried concerning a limited liquidity arrangement focused exclusively on Sun-affiliated digital assets.”
Sun then posted about this, claiming that he was helping to facilitate withdrawals by providing liquidity.
The complaint alleges that this behavior by Sun “affirmatively facilitated a breakdown of creditor equality by providing preferential treatment unavailable to others who didn’t have tokens associated with Sun.”
Read more: Justin Sun, crypto’s most shameless marketer, play-acts the hero
This facility ended up “effectively reallocating estate value away from the general creditor body and towards Sun and his enterprises.”
Furthermore, the complaint claims that this ploy “was designed to — and did — artificially inflate the prices of Sun-affiliated tokens by inducing a surge in demand on FTX.”
What does the complaint say about Justin Sun’s entities?
The amended complaint provides us additional insight into what the FTX estate believes the current status of Sun’s web of companies is.
It names two Sun-affiliated firms as responsible for the acquisition of Huobi, specifically About Capital Management and Digital Legend.
Furthermore, it details how Huobi Global S.A. currently owns the HTX trademark in the United States.
Read more: Justin Sun’s Poloniex and HTX withdraw huge amounts from AAVE
It also reveals that Polo Digital Assets, Ltd., which was incorporated in the Seychelles and previously operated the Poloniex exchange has been “stricken from the Seychelles registry in January 2022.”
Despite the fact that this entity has been struck from the registry, it’s still the entity referenced in the Poloniex privacy policy.
Based on the Poloniex user agreement, which claims that “the laws of the Republic of Panama shall govern this agreement,” it’s likely that the successor entity has been incorporated in Panama.
Protos reached out to Poloniex for clarification about which entity currently oversees the platform, but it didn’t provide clarification before publication.
Read more: Justin Sun owns more TRX than everyone else combined, report
A similar problem exists for HTX, where the proposed amended complaint details how “a publicly available Huobi service agreement refers to” an entity called HTX Ltd., which it identifies as being incorporated in the Seychelles.
However, “the Trust has been unable to identify any company incorporated under that name in the Seychelles corporate registry.”
The complaint also mentions that Orange Anthem, the entity that had funds on FTX at the time of collapse, “is part of Sun’s TRON Network” and notes that it registered its FTX accounts with the email “[email protected]” and further noted that its know your customer documents “identified Sun as the sole director and shareholder of Orange Anthem.”
Furthermore, Orange Anthem is linked to Black Anthem, as “when FTX requested proof of Orange Anthem’s assets, the Tron personnel… responded with screenshots reflecting assets that were held not by Orange Anthem, but rather nominally by Black Anthem.”
Black Anthem’s account was registered to the email account “[email protected].”
Read more: How involved is Justin Sun with WBTC’s new custodian BiT Global?
When this proof of assets was challenged by FTX employees, “the Tron personnel… expressly dismissed any distinction among the entities,” suggesting that Black Anthem “uses the director Sun Yuchen, this totally matches the director of Orange Anthem Ltd. Sun Yuchen. The person is the same.”
When, according to the proposed amended complaint, FTX employees suggested this didn’t prove that Orange Anthem owned the assets, the Tron personnel stated that “Yes Sun Yuchen is the sole director for Black Anthem Ltd as same as Orange Anthem Ltd.”
This was an apparent attempt to suggest that Sun’s control of these entities meant their assets were interchangeable.
As we’ve mentioned previously, Sun is a fan of the author Ayn Rand, and Anthem is a book by Ayn Rand.
What happened before this amended complaint?
The original adversary case was filed in November of 2024.
This earlier complaint named Hbit LTD., as well as the other defendants, which was subsequently removed in February of 2025.
In April 2025 the defendants filed a motion to dismiss the suit, and a hearing related to this was held on December 8, 2025.
Following this, the original complaint was dismissed.
Subsequently, on January 7, the FTX estate filed its motion for leave to amend its complaint.
