FTX says it has $1 billion in cash, as new management team tries to track down funds to pay back creditors

Collapsed crypto exchange FTX has at least $1 billion in cash, new management told creditors at a hearing as they work to retrieve funds from bank accounts.CoinDesk reported on Wednesday that new executives told creditors at a procedural hearing that they have identified more than $1 billion in assets. The hearing was part of bankruptcy proceedings that have been taking place in recent weeks following the implosion and the FTX has located about $720 million in cash assets in US financial institutions authorized to hold funds by the U.S. Department of Justice, funds the exchange has yet to consolidate.

Nearly another $500 million is already being held in US institutions, the report said. There is $6 million being kept for payroll and other operational purposes. Most of the remaining $423 million at unauthorized US institutions are mainly at a single broker -- a broker that FTX's new chief financial officer, Mary Cilia, declined to identify at the hearing, the report said.  "We are reaching out to all of those banks and changing the signatories on the accounts so that we can get access to the accounts and move the cash as much as we can to authorized depository institutions," Cilia said at the creditors' meeting.  Japanese regulators are holding around $130 million of cash in Japan for redemption by local customers.FTX in a November court filing said it owed its 50 biggest creditors nearly $3.1 billion. Tuesday's hearing was part of FTX's Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings. FTX fell in November following a jump in withdrawals and allegations of misuse of FTX customer funds. FTX's new CEO John Ray guided energy giant Enron and telecom company Nortel through their insolvencies.

Bankman-Fried was expected to return to the US as early as Wednesday under extradition from the Bahamas.