Former FTX executive launches Backpack, rumored to launch SOL staking activity (with KYC tutorial included)

2023-11-16 14:16

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Original Title: "Backpack: Former FTX Executive Starts New Venture, Launches New Activity Triggering Community FOMO (with Registration Steps)"

Original Source: DeepTech TechFlow

The bull market is filled with excitement, and the FTX and Solana ecosystems are once again attracting public attention.

Recently, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal, some former high-level executives of FTX, including Can Sun, former general counsel of FTX, are jointly creating a new cryptocurrency exchange called Backpack Exchange. This new exchange plans to use new technology to protect user funds.

With the resurgence of the Solana ecosystem, rumors have been circulating that Backpack Exchange is about to launch a staking and subscription activity, which has attracted a lot of attention from the community. Some big players in the industry have expressed their interest and are preparing to participate. What kind of trading platform is this exactly?

Backpack Exchange's Past and Present

In May of this year, Shenzhen TechFlow wrote an article about xNFT, titled "xNFT: The Weapon Behind Mad Lads' Popularity, an NFT That Can Run Code". In short, xNFT is a decentralized application that can run within an NFT, rather than being a static image or video. The development team behind it is the Solana ecosystem wallet, Backpack.

In September 2022, Coral, the development company behind Backpack, announced the completion of a $20 million financing round. FTX Ventures and Jump Crypto led the investment, with participation from Multicoin Capital, Anagram, K5 Global, and other strategic investors.

Whether it's FTX Ventures or Jump Crypto leading the way, Multicoin Capital is one of the most legitimate crypto VCs in the Solana ecosystem.

However, the good times did not last long. FTX suffered a major setback, causing the entire Solana ecosystem to fall into a period of stagnation and silence. Even more tragic is that most of the funds belonging to the Backpack team are trapped in FTX.

Backpack founder Armani Ferrante stated on The Scoop podcast that the company is unable to withdraw funds from FTX, totaling approximately $14.5 million.

During the crisis, the company had to "enter cockroach mode", cutting all expenses to maintain operations. The Backpack team persevered and survived.

In April of this year, Backpack released the first xNFT series Mad Lads on Solana, which was a great success with a total transaction volume that once ranked first in the entire network, even surpassing old-school Ethereum blue-chip NFTs such as BAYC.

After surviving the toughest times, Backpack is now seeking a new direction - exchanges.

In October 2023, Backpack announced the launch of a "regulated" trading platform called Backpack Exchange. It also announced that it has obtained a VASP license from the Dubai Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority and will begin testing in November, with plans to launch to the public in the first quarter of 2024.

FTX Former Employees Start Businesses Together

The launch of Backpack Exchange also teamed up with Can Sun, former general counsel of FTX, and Armani Ferrante to jointly establish a new company called Trek Labs in Dubai to operate the exchange. Currently, the company plans to sell 10% of its shares to investors at a valuation of over $100 million.

Ferrante's wife Claire Zhang is also a former legal assistant of Sun and a member of Trek Labs' executive board.

Can Sun was the former general counsel of FTX and also a key witness that led to SBF's criminal trial. He told the jury that he "never approved" FTX lending customer funds to Alameda Research.

According to Coindesk, Backpack founder Ferrante was previously a software development engineer at Alameda Research, and Backpack's other co-founder Tristan Yver had worked at FTX for over 2 years.

Currently, Sun also stated that he and Ferrante have hired other former FTX legal and compliance employees to join the exchange.

Therefore, Backpack can be referred to as the collective re-employment of former FTX employees.

Ferrante said that the decision to establish his own exchange was also inspired by the massive disaster caused by the collapse of FTX.

He stated in a statement: "It's time to end the era of opaque cryptocurrency exchanges, which represents everything our industry opposes," "Using exchanges with single points of failure, no reserve proof, or no auditability should not be normal."

Therefore, the main features that Backpack Exchange emphasizes are safety and transparency.

This platform integrates Multi-Party Computation (MPC) technology to ensure fund security and allows users to self-manage their funds. This means that no one, except the user themselves, can access their cryptocurrency wallet.

Due to the influence of the Backpack exchange, the NFT series Mad Lads previously launched by Backpack has skyrocketed by 460% in the past 30 days, with a current floor price of 96 SOL.

On November 18th, the exchange is expected to launch its first round of new token offerings. Rumors in the Twitter community suggest that participants will need to stake approximately 5 SOL and then receive an airdrop.

This rumor has also attracted a large number of airdrop hunters. According to community participants, due to the need for KYC certification, the price of a single KYC document skyrocketed from $3 to $15 overnight.