Brad Garlinghouse: Ripple is Considering Transactions for FTX Assets

Brad Garlinghouse, the CEO of Ripple, is apparently interested in purchasing some assets from the defunct FTX cryptocurrency exchange.

Garlinghouse told The Sunday Times that former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried called him two days before the company filed for bankruptcy as he tried to gather investors to save the business. This incident occurred on the sidelines of Ripple's Swell conference in London, which was held on Nov. 16 and 17.

The two talked about if there were any FTX-owned companies that Ripple "would want to own" during the discussion, according to the company's CEO.

“Part of my conversation was if he needs liquidity, maybe there’s businesses that he has bought or he has that we would want to own [...] Would we have bought some of those from him? I definitely think that was on the table,” he said.

Garlinghouse acknowledges that a potential purchase for an FTX business will be "quite different than it would have been one-to-one" now that FTX has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the United States.

"I'm not denying we'll have a look at such things; I have no doubt about that. But it's a more difficult path to go, he continued.

The bankruptcy case in Delaware includes about 130 FTX-related businesses, including FTX.US.

LedgerX, a crypto clearinghouse, FTX Digital Markets, FTX Australia Pty, and payment processor FTX Express Pay are a few subsidiaries that are not involved in the legal actions.

Garlinghouse stated that he would be interested in purchasing the components used by commercial customers.

It appears that Ripple's leadership, like many others in the sector, are keeping up with the most recent FTX scandal developments.

On November 10, David Schwartz, the chief technology officer of Ripple, tweeted to FTX workers to let them know that there might be room at Ripple for them as long as they aren't involved in compliance, finance, or business ethics.

To keep track of all claims made against FTX and make sure interested parties are kept informed of developments throughout its Chapter 11 bankruptcy case, FTX recently appointed restructuring administration firm Kroll as its agent.