Founded by former FTX executives, the Backpack exchange plans to support creditors in restricted regions through the bond market, attempting to fill the market void left by official processes while reshaping the trust foundation of the crypto industry.

Written by: Luke, Mars Finance

In the long shadow of the FTX empire's collapse, millions of creditors worldwide are still anxiously awaiting the final judgment. However, for users in specific jurisdictions like mainland China, the glimmer of hope seems to be swallowed by a legal document. The FTX bankruptcy estate proposed to the court to designate 49 countries and regions, including China and Russia, as "restricted jurisdictions" to avoid local legal risks, which could lead to users in these areas being excluded from compensation distribution, plunging them into despair with no recourse.

Amid this legal and financial "no man's land," an unexpected name has emerged: Backpack exchange. This young platform, founded by former FTX executives and itself a victim of the FTX collapse, is rumored to be launching a dedicated bond market to take on and support the debt claims of users from mainland China and other regions who have been "abandoned" by the official liquidation process.

This dramatic scene raises profound questions: why would a team reborn from the ashes of FTX choose to step forward and tackle this hot potato that even the FTX liquidators fear to touch? Is this merely a gesture of moral support, or a well-considered strategic move? The answer may be far more complex than it appears. Backpack's actions are not just a redemption of the past but a clever reshaping of the trust foundation for the future of the crypto industry. It is rooted in the founding team's unique "original sin" and sense of mission, leveraging their proven technical strength and deep insights into the nature of the trust crisis in the post-FTX era, aiming to transform FTX's greatest failure into its most unique success narrative.

Original Sin and Redemption

Backpack's choice is deeply rooted in the unbreakable ties between its founding team and FTX. Its core members are almost all marked by a profound FTX/Alameda imprint: founder and CEO Armani Ferrante was a software engineer at Alameda Research and the creator of the core development framework Anchor in the Solana ecosystem; co-founder Tristan Yver was the strategic head of FTX US; and the company's legal head Can Sun was the former chief legal counsel of FTX. They have unparalleled firsthand experience of the internal operations and fatal flaws of that once-glorious crypto empire.

However, defining them merely as "FTX veterans" does not capture the full story. More crucially, they are also direct victims of that disaster. In September 2022, Backpack's predecessor, Coral, completed a $20 million strategic financing led by FTX Ventures and Jump Crypto. Just two months later, the collapse of FTX caused over 80% of the operational funds stored at the exchange to evaporate. Armani Ferrante later described their situation in an interview: "It felt like being knocked out in a boxing ring, needing urgent rescue to survive."

This near-fatal blow did not lead them to despair; instead, it forged Backpack's unique "post-FTX" mission. From the very beginning, they committed to building an exchange that could fundamentally address the trust and transparency issues that led to FTX's downfall. Ferrante has repeatedly stated, "In the post-FTX era, you need trust and transparency to be a true alternative to other players." He reflected, "People praised FTX's speed of development… but it turned out they were able to move so fast because they took every shortcut in the book." Therefore, Backpack emphasized technical verifiability from the design stage, ensuring that every state transition is signed by key pairs, and the entire ledger snapshot is available for review, using technology to eliminate the possibility of opaque operations. This mission, born from deep personal pain, gives Backpack a narrative authenticity that is hard to replicate. When they talk about trust, it is backed by tens of millions of dollars in real losses; when they advocate for other FTX victims, it is not just a business act but a perfect closure to their own redemption story.

A "Great Wall" of Claims

As the Backpack team rebuilds from the ruins, many FTX users in China find themselves facing an insurmountable legal barrier. The FTX estate submitted a motion to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware, planning to designate 49 jurisdictions as "potentially restricted areas" in the name of complying with various national regulations, arguing that distributing assets to these areas "could trigger fines and penalties, including personal liability for directors and executives, and/or criminal penalties including imprisonment."

The scope and amount affected by this action are staggering. According to calculations by The Block based on court documents, the total claims involved in these 49 "restricted jurisdictions" amount to approximately $800 million. Among them, creditors from mainland China account for an astonishing 82%, involving about $656 million. This means that a large, legitimate group of creditors could be deprived of their right to compensation simply because of their geographical location.

Faced with this systemic exclusion, Chinese creditors did not sit idly by. A creditor named Weiwei Ji represented over 300 Chinese users in formally opposing the court's motion. In the document, he expressed his grief and anger: "My family holds four KYC-verified FTX accounts, with a total claim exceeding $15 million… We fully complied with every procedural requirement under the plan. Now this motion threatens our right to distribution in an arbitrary and unfair manner."

Their legal arguments hit the nail on the head: first, this exclusion based on geographical location constitutes "unfair discrimination," directly violating the core principles of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. Second, the FTX estate failed to provide any legal basis to justify the rationale for this geographical discrimination. More importantly, the creditors emphasized that compensation is denominated and settled in U.S. dollars, not cryptocurrency, which could be legally distributed to Chinese citizens through mature financial channels like Hong Kong—just as successfully practiced in the Celsius bankruptcy case. Furthermore, while Chinese law prohibits cryptocurrency trading, it recognizes its legitimacy as personal property, making the liquidators' so-called "legal risks" untenable.

The FTX liquidators' extreme conservative risk-averse strategy, while seen as "cautious" by traditional legal practitioners, inadvertently created a massive market vacuum. They simplified a complex global issue into a local solution centered on U.S. legal liabilities, pushing hundreds of millions of dollars in legitimate claims to the brink of a cliff. It is this "failure" of the official process that opens a golden opportunity for entities like Backpack, which are more agile and possess a crypto-native mindset.

European "Rehearsal"

Before reaching out to a broader and more complex market, Backpack completed a crucial "live drill" in a highly regulated environment. In early 2025, Backpack announced the successful acquisition of FTX EU and received approval from the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC). Although this acquisition initially sparked a public dispute with the FTX estate, which claimed ignorance of the matter, Backpack quickly clarified that they legally acquired these assets from former insiders of FTX who had received bankruptcy court approval. This series of operations showcased the Backpack team's exceptional skills in complex cross-border mergers and regulatory communications.

More importantly, Backpack established a clear and feasible claims process for FTX EU users. Users only need to register on the Backpack EU platform using their original FTX email, complete KYC verification, and they can link their old accounts and await fund distribution. The entire process is settled in euros, and funds are now available for withdrawal. Armani Ferrante's comments highlight the core philosophy: "Customer compensation is a key step in rebuilding trust and confidence in the industry, and Backpack is committed to returning FTX EU users' funds in the fastest and safest way possible."

The claims process for FTX EU is far more than an independent business project; it is essentially a public "beta test" by Backpack to address the broader FTX creditor issues. By successfully executing this process, Backpack not only accumulated valuable experience in handling cross-border bankruptcy claims and established a compliance framework and technical infrastructure but also sent a strong signal to the entire market, especially to the forgotten Chinese creditors: Backpack's commitment is not mere rhetoric but is based on proven, executable capabilities. This "report card" from Europe has become the most credible resume for their expansion into a broader market.

Strategic Calculus: Why This Is More Than Just a Good Deed?

Connecting all the dots, a clear strategic picture emerges. Backpack's support for Chinese creditors is a perfect combination of its core mission, blue ocean strategy, and growth ambitions.

First, it is the ultimate practice of its "post-FTX" redemption mission. By helping the most helpless victims abandoned by official processes, Backpack directly fulfills its founding promise of "building a truly trustworthy exchange."

Second, it is a textbook blue ocean strategy. While giants like Coinbase and Binance fiercely compete in the "red ocean" fields of fees and listing speeds, Backpack takes a different path, shifting the competitive dimension to "trust" and "solving historical issues." This market, composed of hundreds of millions of dollars in claims and hundreds of thousands of anxious users, is a completely uncompetitive blue ocean. By intervening, Backpack not only gains a moral high ground but also establishes a unique brand moat.

Finally, and most critically, the commercial logic lies in the enormous user growth potential behind it. Unlike traditional customer acquisition methods such as airdrops and rebates, Backpack aims to directly convert hundreds of thousands of KYC-verified, high-net-worth crypto users into loyal customers at "zero cost" by addressing a massive pain point valued at over $656 million. These users, having been "rescued" by Backpack after experiencing despair, will have brand loyalty that far exceeds that of ordinary marketing activities. This is an innovative approach that elevates "customer support" and "crisis management" to the level of top growth strategy, a new model of building trust through action and exchanging trust for users.

A New Paradigm of Trust in the Post-FTX Era

As the long liquidation story of FTX gradually comes to an end, the most captivating chapter may not be written in the court documents of Delaware but is quietly unfolding on Backpack's servers. Backpack plans to support FTX creditors in China and other "restricted areas," a move that profoundly reveals the intricacies of its business logic: it stems from the founding team's deep personal pain, seizes the massive market void left by official liquidation processes, and ultimately points to a grand strategic goal—rebuilding trust from the ruins.

This is not a simple charitable act but a strategic maneuver to transform the industry's greatest disaster into its strongest competitive advantage. It signals a potential shift in the competitive paradigm of the crypto world: future exchanges may no longer just compete on technology and functionality but also on their ability to resolve historical issues, take on industry responsibilities, and thereby build truly solid trust relationships. Backpack is betting that in the post-FTX era, the most scarce and valuable asset is not code, not liquidity, but that verifiable, perceivable, and trustworthy trust. This is not just about recovering funds; it is about reshaping the confidence of the entire industry.

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