FTX Trading and the FTX Recovery Trust filed lawsuits Monday against token issuers NFT Stars and Kurosemi, which does business as Delysium, alleging the companies failed to deliver tokens promised under investment agreements with Alameda Research’s venture arm, Alameda Ventures.
The complaints, filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware, seek to compel the companies to turn over tokens that FTX claims were purchased through Simple Agreements for Future Tokens, or SAFTs.
“We urge token and coin issuers to return assets that rightfully belong to FTX, and are willing to initiate litigation barring adequate engagement,” the FTX Estate said in a statement.
The lawsuits mark the latest effort by FTX to recover assets for creditors following its collapse in November 2022. Once one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, FTX filed for bankruptcy after revelations surfaced that around $8 billion in customer funds had been misused by executives to cover risky bets made by FTX’s affiliated trading firm, Alameda Research.
The collapse shook the broader cryptocurrency industry, triggering regulatory scrutiny and resulting in billions of dollars in losses for customers and investors. Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder and former CEO of FTX, was convicted of fraud and conspiracy charges and sentenced to 25 years in prison. The company began its restructuring plan earlier this year, through which it plans to repay creditors.
Part of how it is doing that is collecting funds held by other companies it believes belong to FTX. The court documents allege that NFT Stars and Delysium breached contracts by failing to transfer the tokens despite repeated attempts to resolve the matter outside of court.
FTX is seeking the immediate return of the assets, damages for breach of contract, and sanctions for alleged violations of bankruptcy protections, including those related to the automatic stay under U.S. bankruptcy law.
According to the Delysium complaint, Alameda Ventures, now known as Maclaurin Investment, paid $1 million in January 2022 for the right to receive 75 million $AGI tokens. The tokens launched in April 2023 and were subject to a vesting schedule, with 20% unlocking after a 12-month cliff period and additional tokens unlocking quarterly thereafter.
However, Delysium, an AI agent blockchain project, allegedly extended the vesting schedule unilaterally to 48 months and refused to transfer any tokens, with a company representative stating in a public Discord message that they would not allocate tokens to FTX due to the bankruptcy proceedings.
In the case against marketplace NFT Stars, FTX claims it paid $325,000 in November 2021 for rights to 1.35 million SENATE tokens and 135 million SIDUS tokens. While NFT Stars initially delivered some of the tokens, it allegedly failed to complete further transfers following FTX’s bankruptcy filing.
FTX says NFT Stars now owes more than 831,000 SENATE tokens and 83 million SIDUS tokens, citing breaches of contract and violation of the automatic stay.
Between June 2023 and September 2024, FTX’s advisors attempted to contact NFT Stars 15 times and Delysium 13 times, without receiving a response. Decrypt has approached both for comment.
Edited by Sebastian Sinclair
