While Su Zhu, a co-founder of bankrupt crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC), announced Thursday that a waitlist is live for Open Exchange (OPNX), the new exchange may not be as open as its name implies.
The newly announced venture caters to those who’d like to trade bankruptcy claims—in cases from FTX to Blockfi—but stipulates on its homepage that people in 23 different regions are barred from signing up.
Those countries include sanctioned nations such as North Korea, Cuba, and Venezuela, but the United States is also listed as one of OPNX’s restricted regions. That’s despite some of the biggest bankruptcies currently playing out in the crypto space concerning companies based in the U.S., such as Genesis, BlockFi, Celsius, and Voyager Digital.
When Zhu unveiled the new exchange on Twitter, he stated “trapped creditor claims from FTX, Voyager, Celsius” were part of the creative spark behind OPNX, raised in conversations with CoinFLEX co-founder and CEO Mark Lamb. “It clicked for both of us at exactly the same moment,” Zhu wrote.
7/ somehow it magically combined
– his idea for a next level cex
– lack of a great trading ui post ftx
– trapped creditor claims from ftx, voyager, celsius, our firm, etc
– wish to help investors and builder a safer future
it clicked for both of us at exactly the same moment
— Zhu Su 🔺 (@zhusu) February 9, 2023
A leaked pitch deck for the exchange—previously called GTX—showed Zhu, Lamb, 3AC co-founder Kyle Davies, and CoinFLEX co-founder Sudhu Armugan sought to raise $25 million for the new venture.
One of the pitch deck’s central claims was that it will “fill the power vacuum left by FTX” and “appeal to the crypto trading appetite of
