Alameda Research sues Waves founder in bid to recover at least $90 million

On January 11, according to The Block, Alameda Research, the trading subsidiary of bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX, has filed a lawsuit against Aleksandr Ivanov, the founder of Waves and its affiliated entities, attempting to recover at least $90 million. In a filing on Sunday, Alameda stated that it seeks to transfer assets worth $90 million owned by debtors in the Alameda and FTX bankruptcy cases, and added that Alameda had previously operated these assets on the liquidity platform Vires.Finance, which is based on Waves.

According to the documents, in March 2022, Alameda deposited about $80 million in USDT and USDC on Vires, which is said to have been exchanged for USDN worth about $90 million. Vires users were encouraged to deposit assets into Vires through the Waves blockchain to receive rewards or interest and gain governance rights of Vires DAO. Alameda stated: "Although Ivanov marketed Waves and Vires as an opportunity for lenders and other users to earn substantial profits, Ivanov secretly planned a series of transactions that artificially inflated the value of WAVES while siphoning funds from Vires." Alameda pointed out that the debtor "has repeatedly attempted to regain custody of the frozen assets," and Ivanov "agreed to participate in a call with the debtor in January 2023." However, the filing stated that Ivanov had ignored all other efforts by the debtor since then.

In the past few days, the FTX bankruptcy estate administrator has filed more than 20 lawsuits against various entities to recover funds for creditors.