Failed Brisbane crypto exchange owed $33m by FTX

Failed Brisbane crypto exchange Digital Surge is owed $33m by FTX Exchange, the global cryptocurrency platform whose founder is now facing fraud charges.

Failed Brisbane crypto exchange Digital Surge is owed $33m by FTX Exchange, the global cryptocurrency platform whose founder is now facing fraud charges.

According to documents lodged with ASIC by Digital Surge’s administrators KordaMentha, the debt relates to assets tied up in the FTX lockbox.

Digital Surge, which had been using the FTX platform for some of its trading, collapsed into administration this month with 30,000 Aussie customers unable to trade or withdraw money.

The directors of the company are now planning a rescue package, the details of which have yet to be released. The trading platform, set up in 2017, allowed customers to access more than 300 different digital currencies.

FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried is escorted out of the Magistrate's Court in Nassau, Bahamas on December 21. Picture: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was extradited to the US from the Bahamas on Thursday after being indicted on eight counts of fraud and conspiracy by federal prosecutors in New York.

FTX and its sister trading house Alameda Research went bankrupt last month, dissolving a virtual trading business that had been valued by the market at $US32bn ($47.3bn).

Prosecutors allege Bankman-Fried cheated investors and misused funds that belonged to FTX and Alameda Research customers.

Digital Surge and its directors are not accused of any wrongdoing.

According to the KordaMentha report, Digital Surge itself owes a secured debt to the tune of $1.05m to a related company called DigiCo. 

KordaMentha’s Scott Langdon says he is pleased with the cooperative and collaborative approach taken by the directors to understand Digital Surge’s financial position.

The administrators anticipate the rescue package will be in the form of a deed of company arrangement (DOCA), which all creditors will have an opportunity to consider.

Administrators from Robson Cotter were also recently appointed to Queensland crypto firm Trigon Trading, a sponsor of NRL team the Gold Coast Titans.

Trading as TrigonX, the Gold Coast-based company was announced as a sponsor of the Titans in November last year, with the football club saying it would become an executive partner for the 2022 and 2023 season.

TrigonX operated a 24/7 digital currency exchange and was founded in was co-founded in 2014 by Matteo Salerno.

“Our aim is to create a better understanding of the crypto space for players and fans of the game and provide a secure and easy road to enter the crypto space,” Mr Salerno said at the time of the Titans announcement.

Atom Men

Macarthur Minerals executive chairman Cameron McCall is all over iron ore, but we hear he is now going by the new moniker of “Yellow Cake Cam.”

McCall and Macarthur Minerals consultant and former chief executive Joe Phillips are key investors in a new private company called Jag Minerals USA, which is exploring uranium production in the United States.

McCall says the Brisbane-based company is looking at two potential mines - Marysvale in Utah and Sky in Wyoming near the historic Gas Hills Uranium District.

Phillips, who serves as Jag Mineral’s chief executive, also is negotiating 83 new uranium claims in Colorado, some of which were in production up until the late 1960s.

He says that after reaching a peak in the 1960s - when uranium was fetching $US140 a pound - the sector has come off the boil somewhat. But he says the “technology gap” between coal-fired power and renewables meant there was renewed interest in nuclear, with uranium now selling for around $US47 a pound from as low as $8 a few years ago.

The abandoned Mary Kathleen Uranium mine west of Cloncurry.

The US is the largest producer of nuclear power, accounting for more than 30 per cent of worldwide nuclear generation of electricity but with only one per cent of the world’s uranium resources. There are 52 new nuclear reactors under construction around the world.

McCall, who is a major shareholder in Jag Minerals along with Phillips, says the plan is to undertake initial studies into the feasibility of both projects before looking at potential funding models including a possible ASX listing.

It has been a big year for McCall, Phillips and Macarthur Minerals, which announced it was sitting on a gigantic mineral reserve in Western Australia.

A feasibility study confirmed the economic viability of Macarthur’s huge Lake Giles project under long-term iron ore price forecasts.

The project sits 250km northwest of Kalgoorlie and houses a massive 237 million tonnes of ore with a 25 year calculated mine life.

McCall says the company founded by the late Ken Talbot was now in charge of a major project of significance for Western Australia, Australia and the green iron ore market.

Additional reporting AFP