Audit log

Every state-changing event for Liquid Global: moderation decisions on community submissions, plus corrections and updates from the news pipeline. URL-based decisions carry three independent witnesses — the original source, an Internet Archive snapshot taken at submission time, and a Solana memo signed by our publicly-disclosed publisher key.

1. #1publishby system:backfill

   2026-05-30 12:59:57Z
   Score: ? → ? (no score change)
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   ●mainnet-betaslot 423,161,189

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   5M2tgQs2TaAB…BrxCRGg8copyexplorer ↗

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   {"actor":"system:backfill","investigation_id":"3665921e-7f5f-4514-bfe7-177a85b5ecc4","kind":"publish","page_slug":"liquid-global","published_at":"2026-05-30T12:59:57.549Z","sequence_num":1,"snapshot":{"content_type":"investigation","entity_name":"Liquid Global","sections":[{"content":"Liquid Global was the retail-facing brand of Quoine Pte. Ltd., a company co-founded in 2014 by Mike Kayamori and Mario Gomez Lozada. Kayamori, a Harvard MBA and former SoftBank SVP, served as CEO through April 2022. Quoine was the first global crypto fintech company to receive a license from Japan's Financial Services Agency (JFSA), a milestone announced in August 2017. The exchange rebranded from QUOINE to Liquid in 2018, positioning itself as a global crypto-fiat platform. By 2021 the exchange reported over 800,000 customers and a peak daily trade volume of $1.1 billion. In October 2021, Quoine Corporation obtained an additional Type I Financial Instruments Business license under Japan's Financial Instruments and Exchange Act, allowing it to offer cryptocurrency derivatives to Japanese users — a process that took more than a year of regulatory review. The Singapore-incorporated Quoine Pte. Ltd. entity operated the global Liquid exchange, while the Japanese subsidiary Quoine Corporation held FSA registration domestically.","heading":"Background and Operations","severity":"low","sources":[{"credibility":2,"name":"QUOINE is the First Global Cryptocurrency FinTech Company to Receive License from Japan Financial Services Agency","type":"official","url":"https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/quoine-is-the-first-global-cryptocurrency-fintech-company-to-receive-license-from-japan-financial-services-agency-300528136.html"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Crypto exchange Liquid attains Japanese derivatives licence — CoinTelegraph","type":"news_article","url":"https://cointelegraph.com/news/crypto-exchange-liquid-attains-japanese-derivatives-licence"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Mike Kayamori — Co-Founder and CEO at Quoine and Liquid — CoinTelegraph","type":"news_article","url":"https://cointelegraph.com/top-people-in-crypto-and-blockchain-2020/mike-kayamori"}]},{"content":"On August 18–19, 2021, an unauthorized party gained access to the warm wallets managed by Liquid's Singapore subsidiary, Quoine Pte. Ltd., and drained approximately $97 million in cryptocurrency. The stolen assets comprised 107 Bitcoin (approximately $4.3 million at the time), 11 million XRP (approximately $13.1 million), 9 million TRON tokens, and roughly $60 million in ERC-20 tokens spread across 67 different token contracts — with ETH and various DeFi-related tokens making up the bulk of ERC-20 value. Blockchain analytics firm Elliptic counted just over $97 million received by addresses identified by Liquid as belonging to the attacker. The attacker demonstrated sophisticated and pre-planned execution: stolen USDT-on-TRON was converted to native TRON within minutes — a technique likely learned from the Poly Network incident where Tether froze stolen USDT — and ERC-20 tokens were rapidly swapped to native ETH via decentralized exchanges including Uniswap, SushiSwap, and 1inch to prevent token-level freezes. Roughly 15,000 ETH (approximately $45 million) was consolidated into a single Ethereum address (0x5578840AAe68682a9779623Fa9e8714802B59946). Approximately 9,000 ETH was subsequently routed through the Tornado Cash mixer, and a portion was converted to Bitcoin via DeFi bridging protocols and mixed again. Stolen tokens also reached centralized exchanges Huobi and Bilaxy. Community coordination and exchange cooperation enabled the freezing of approximately $16 million in Ethereum-based assets. Liquid suspended deposits and withdrawals upon discovery and began working with blockchain analytics firms. This was the third-largest exchange hack in Japan at the time, and also the second significant security incident for Liquid — the exchange had previously suffered a DNS hijack attack in 2020.","heading":"August 2021 Hack — $97 Million Stolen","severity":"critical","sources":[{"credibility":2,"name":"Liquid Exchange Hacked: $97 Million Stolen — Elliptic","type":"research","url":"https://www.elliptic.co/blog/liquid-exchange-hacked-94-million-stolen"},{"credibility":1,"name":"Liquid cryptocurrency exchange hacked, more than $90 million stolen — CNBC","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/19/liquid-cryptocurrency-exchange-hack.html"},{"credibility":1,"name":"Japan's Liquid Global Exchange Hacked; $90M in Crypto Siphoned Off — CoinDesk","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2021/08/19/japans-liquid-global-exchange-hacked-90m-in-crypto-siphoned-off"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Hack Track: Analysis of Liquid Global Security Breach — Merkle Science","type":"research","url":"https://www.merklescience.com/blog/hack-track-analysis-of-liquid-global-security-breach"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Liquid Hack: The Second Time Around — TRM Labs","type":"research","url":"https://trmlabs.com/post/liquid-hack-the-second-time-around"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Tracking the Stolen Assets from the Liquid Exchange Hacking — Sentinel Protocol / Medium","type":"research","url":"https://medium.com/sentinel-protocol/tracking-the-stolen-assets-from-the-liquid-exchange-hacking-acd94e01c762"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Revisiting the Liquid exchange hack: Lessons for organizations working with MPC — Fireblocks","type":"research","url":"https://www.fireblocks.com/blog/revisiting-the-liquid-exchange-hack-3-lessons-for-organizations-working-with-mpc"}]},{"content":"Chainalysis, in its January 2022 Crypto Crime Report, attributed the August 2021 Liquid hack to actors working on behalf of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), consistent with Lazarus Group operational patterns. The laundering methodology matched the DPRK playbook documented by Chainalysis: (1) conversion of diverse ERC-20 tokens to ETH via DEXs; (2) ETH mixing through Tornado Cash; (3) bridge-based conversion of mixed ETH to Bitcoin; (4) Bitcoin mixing; and (5) consolidation and deposit at Asia-based crypto-to-fiat exchanges for cash-out. Chainalysis estimated that hackers laundered over $91 million from the Liquid breach. The tayvano/lazarus-bluenoroff-research repository on GitHub — a widely referenced open-source compilation of DPRK-attributed hacks — lists the Liquid Global breach as a Lazarus/Bluenoroff operation, cataloguing fifteen Ethereum addresses and eight Bitcoin addresses associated with the attacker, along with Ripple and TRON addresses. Chainalysis noted that DPRK-linked actors launched at least seven attacks in 2021, stealing close to $400 million in total, with the Liquid hack representing one of the largest single incidents in that period. No law enforcement agency has publicly issued formal indictments specifically naming individuals responsible for the Liquid hack as of the knowledge cutoff; the attribution rests on Chainalysis blockchain analysis and the on-chain behavioral fingerprint characteristic of DPRK operations.","heading":"Lazarus Group / DPRK Attribution","severity":"critical","sources":[{"credibility":2,"name":"North Korean Hackers Have Prolific Year as Their Unlaundered Cryptocurrency Holdings Reach All-time High — Chainalysis","type":"research","url":"https://www.chainalysis.com/blog/north-korean-hackers-have-prolific-year-as-their-total-unlaundered-cryptocurrency-holdings-reach-all-time-high/"},{"credibility":2,"name":"North Korea-linked Hackers Laundered $91M after Liquid.com Hack — iHodl / Chainalysis","type":"news_article","url":"https://ihodl.com/topnews/2022-01-14/north-korea-linked-hackers-laundered-91m-after-liquidcom-hack/"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Lazarus Group — Wikipedia (lists Liquid Global breach)","type":"other","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lazarus_Group"},{"credibility":2,"name":"lazarus-bluenoroff-research: liquid_global.md — GitHub (tayvano)","type":"research","url":"https://github.com/tayvano/lazarus-bluenoroff-research/blob/main/hacks-and-thefts/liquid_global.md"},{"credibility":2,"name":"North Korean hackers stole $400M in 2021, mostly ETH: Chainalysis — CoinTelegraph","type":"news_article","url":"https://cointelegraph.com/news/north-korean-hackers-stole-400m-in-2021-mostly-eth-chainalysis"}]},{"content":"Six days after the hack, on August 25, 2021, Liquid Global announced it had secured a $120 million debt financing facility from FTX, the Bahamas-based exchange operated by Sam Bankman-Fried. The loan was described as intended to strengthen Liquid's capital position, accelerate capital generation projects, and maintain key regulatory metrics in Japan and Singapore. The announcement positioned FTX as a strategic partner, and the deal closed August 26, 2021. On February 2, 2022, FTX announced it would acquire Liquid Group outright for an undisclosed sum; the acquisition included Quoine Corporation and its FSA license, giving FTX a regulated foothold in the Japanese market — one of the few major jurisdictions where FTX did not yet hold a direct license. Liquid's prior unicorn-level valuation (exceeding $1 billion in April 2019) was noted as context, though the acquisition price was never disclosed. The deal closed on approximately April 4, 2022, a few days after the originally scheduled closing. Existing Japanese FTX users were migrated to the Liquid platform effective March 30, 2022. The acquisition also gave FTX control of Quoine, described by CoinDesk as one of Japan's 30 FSA-registered exchanges holding a Type I Financial Instruments Business license for securities and derivatives trading.","heading":"FTX Emergency Loan and Acquisition","severity":"high","sources":[{"credibility":1,"name":"Recently Hacked Exchange Liquid Global Secures $120M Loan From FTX — CoinDesk","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.coindesk.com/business/2021/08/25/recently-hacked-exchange-liquid-global-secures-120m-loan-from-ftx"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Hacked Liquid exchange receives $120M debt funding from FTX — CoinTelegraph","type":"news_article","url":"https://cointelegraph.com/news/hacked-liquid-exchange-receives-120m-debt-funding-from-ftx"},{"credibility":1,"name":"FTX Buys Crypto Exchange Liquid Group for Expansion in Japan — CoinDesk","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.coindesk.com/business/2022/02/02/ftx-buys-crypto-exchange-liquid-group-for-expansion-in-japan"},{"credibility":1,"name":"Crypto exchange FTX to buy Japanese rival Liquid for Asia expansion — CNBC","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/02/crypto-exchange-ftx-to-buy-japanese-rival-liquid.html"},{"credibility":1,"name":"FTX Closed Acquisition of Liquid Exchange a Few Days Late — CoinDesk","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.coindesk.com/business/2022/05/02/ftx-closed-acquisition-of-liquid-exchange-a-few-days-late"},{"credibility":2,"name":"FTX Acquires Liquid Group in Major Eastern Expansion — Decrypt","type":"news_article","url":"https://decrypt.co/91852/ftx-acquires-liquid-group-in-major-far-east-expansion"}]},{"content":"On November 11, 2022, FTX Trading Ltd. and 134 affiliated entities filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, following a collapse triggered by a CoinDesk report on Alameda Research's FTT holdings and the subsequent mass withdrawal event. On November 15, 2022, Liquid Global — operating as Quoine Pte. Ltd. — announced the suspension of all fiat and cryptocurrency withdrawals, citing the Chapter 11 filing by FTX Trading International as the ultimate beneficial owner of Quoine Pte. Ltd. The exchange's native token, QASH, fell more than 25% on the withdrawal suspension announcement. Liquid Global subsequently halted all trading days after the withdrawal freeze. Singapore's Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) indicated it would factor the FTX developments into its ongoing review of Quoine's registration application. Liquid Japan users who held funds on the platform were directed to file claims via the FTX restructuring claims portal administered by Kroll. The claims submission deadline for FTX, Quoine, and affiliated entities was set at September 29, 2023. The Liquid exchange's situation contrasted with FTX Japan (a separate entity), which had segregated customer funds under Japanese law and was able to resume withdrawals — a process that concluded in early 2023. FTX-Owned Crypto Exchange Liquid was the direct victim of the corporate collapse, with customers losing access to exchange balances for an extended period during bankruptcy proceedings.","heading":"FTX Collapse and Liquid Withdrawal Freeze (November 2022)","severity":"critical","sources":[{"credibility":1,"name":"Liquid Global, Crypto Exchange Owned by FTX, Halts Withdrawals — CoinDesk","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.coindesk.com/business/2022/11/15/liquid-global-crypto-exchange-bailed-out-by-ftx-halts-withdrawals"},{"credibility":2,"name":"FTX-Owned Crypto Exchange Liquid Suspends Trading for Bankruptcy Proceedings — CryptoNews","type":"news_article","url":"https://cryptonews.com/news/ftx-owned-crypto-exchange-liquid-suspends-trading-for-bankruptcy-proceedings-heres-what-happened/"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Bankruptcy of FTX — Wikipedia","type":"other","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bankruptcy_of_FTX"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Making a claim on the FTX Claims Portal — Liquid Help Center","type":"official","url":"https://help.liquid.com/en/articles/8165529-making-a-claim-on-the-ftx-claims-portal"},{"credibility":1,"name":"FTX Trading Ltd. Restructuring Administration Cases — Kroll","type":"court_filing","url":"https://restructuring.ra.kroll.com/FTX/"},{"credibility":3,"name":"Liquid Global Halts Trading Days After Suspending Withdrawals — Bitcompare","type":"news_article","url":"https://bitcompare.net/post/liquid-global-halts-trading-days-after-suspending-withdrawals"}]},{"content":"The August 2021 hack exploited Liquid's multiparty computation (MPC) wallet system, which was operated by the Singapore subsidiary Quoine Pte. Ltd. and used for warehousing and delivery management of customer cryptocurrency. Post-incident analysis by Fireblocks (an MPC wallet provider) concluded that the attack likely resulted from a compromise of the MPC key management process rather than a flaw in MPC cryptography itself, highlighting that implementation security and key ceremony procedures are as critical as the underlying cryptographic system. The attacker's speed and systematic asset conversion — converting USDT-on-TRON to TRON within minutes, rapidly swapping 67 ERC-20 token types to ETH — is consistent with prior rehearsal and insider knowledge of the wallet architecture. The tayvano/lazarus-bluenoroff-research repository classifies the incident as a potential inside job, noting that an ex-employee later disputed claims of scapegoating. The 2021 hack was not Liquid's first security incident: a DNS hijack occurred in 2020 that compromised user accounts. Liquid's warm wallet architecture — holding substantial balances in internet-connected wallets to support exchange liquidity — was identified by multiple post-mortems as the structural vulnerability that enabled the scale of the theft.","heading":"Security Infrastructure Failures","severity":"high","sources":[{"credibility":2,"name":"Revisiting the Liquid exchange hack: Lessons for organizations working with MPC — Fireblocks","type":"research","url":"https://www.fireblocks.com/blog/revisiting-the-liquid-exchange-hack-3-lessons-for-organizations-working-with-mpc"},{"credibility":2,"name":"lazarus-bluenoroff-research: liquid_global.md (inside job classification) — GitHub","type":"research","url":"https://github.com/tayvano/lazarus-bluenoroff-research/blob/main/hacks-and-thefts/liquid_global.md"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Liquid Hack: The Second Time Around — TRM Labs","type":"research","url":"https://trmlabs.com/post/liquid-hack-the-second-time-around"}]},{"content":"Liquid's parent entity Quoine was among the first crypto exchanges globally to obtain formal regulatory registration in Japan, receiving a license from Japan's Financial Services Agency in August 2017 — before the majority of the market. This early regulatory posture gave Liquid a competitive advantage for institutional and Japanese retail customers. In October 2021, Quoine Corporation expanded its regulatory footprint by obtaining a Type I Financial Instruments Business license under the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act, enabling crypto derivatives offerings. Despite holding FSA registration, Liquid was not immune to the consequences of its corporate acquisition by FTX. When FTX filed for bankruptcy, Liquid's Singapore-entity operations were ensnared in the Chapter 11 proceedings in Delaware. Singapore's Monetary Authority of Singapore stated it would consider the FTX developments in its ongoing review of Quoine Pte. Ltd.'s registration application, indicating the regulatory consequences extended to the Singapore licensing jurisdiction as well. The FTX collapse effectively ended Liquid's operational life as an active exchange.","heading":"Regulatory and Compliance History","severity":"medium","sources":[{"credibility":2,"name":"QUOINE is the First Global Cryptocurrency FinTech Company to Receive License from Japan Financial Services Agency — PR Newswire","type":"official","url":"https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/quoine-is-the-first-global-cryptocurrency-fintech-company-to-receive-license-from-japan-financial-services-agency-300528136.html"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Liquid secures Type I Financial Instruments Business license from Japan regulators — CoinJournal","type":"news_article","url":"https://coinjournal.net/news/liquid-crypto-exchange-gets-approval-to-offer-crypto-derivatives-services-in-japan/"},{"credibility":1,"name":"Liquid Global, Crypto Exchange Owned by FTX, Halts Withdrawals — CoinDesk","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.coindesk.com/business/2022/11/15/liquid-global-crypto-exchange-bailed-out-by-ftx-halts-withdrawals"}]}],"sources_used":[{"credibility":2,"name":"Liquid Exchange Hacked: $97 Million Stolen — Elliptic","type":"research","url":"https://www.elliptic.co/blog/liquid-exchange-hacked-94-million-stolen"},{"credibility":1,"name":"Liquid cryptocurrency exchange hacked, more than $90 million stolen — CNBC","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/19/liquid-cryptocurrency-exchange-hack.html"},{"credibility":1,"name":"Japan's Liquid Global Exchange Hacked; $90M in Crypto Siphoned Off — CoinDesk","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2021/08/19/japans-liquid-global-exchange-hacked-90m-in-crypto-siphoned-off"},{"credibility":1,"name":"Liquid crypto exchange hacked in Japan, nearly $100 million in coins taken — Fortune","type":"news_article","url":"https://fortune.com/2021/08/19/hackers-liquid-crypto-exchange-japan-100-million-ethereum/"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Hack Track: Analysis of Liquid Global Security Breach — Merkle Science","type":"research","url":"https://www.merklescience.com/blog/hack-track-analysis-of-liquid-global-security-breach"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Liquid Hack: The Second Time Around — TRM Labs","type":"research","url":"https://trmlabs.com/post/liquid-hack-the-second-time-around"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Tracking the Stolen Assets from the Liquid Exchange Hacking — Sentinel Protocol","type":"research","url":"https://medium.com/sentinel-protocol/tracking-the-stolen-assets-from-the-liquid-exchange-hacking-acd94e01c762"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Revisiting the Liquid exchange hack: Lessons for organizations working with MPC — Fireblocks","type":"research","url":"https://www.fireblocks.com/blog/revisiting-the-liquid-exchange-hack-3-lessons-for-organizations-working-with-mpc"},{"credibility":2,"name":"lazarus-bluenoroff-research: liquid_global.md — GitHub (tayvano)","type":"research","url":"https://github.com/tayvano/lazarus-bluenoroff-research/blob/main/hacks-and-thefts/liquid_global.md"},{"credibility":2,"name":"North Korean Hackers Have Prolific Year as Their Unlaundered Cryptocurrency Holdings Reach All-time High — Chainalysis","type":"research","url":"https://www.chainalysis.com/blog/north-korean-hackers-have-prolific-year-as-their-total-unlaundered-cryptocurrency-holdings-reach-all-time-high/"},{"credibility":2,"name":"North Korea-linked Hackers Laundered $91M after Liquid.com Hack — iHodl","type":"news_article","url":"https://ihodl.com/topnews/2022-01-14/north-korea-linked-hackers-laundered-91m-after-liquidcom-hack/"},{"credibility":2,"name":"North Korean hackers stole $400M in 2021, mostly ETH: Chainalysis — CoinTelegraph","type":"news_article","url":"https://cointelegraph.com/news/north-korean-hackers-stole-400m-in-2021-mostly-eth-chainalysis"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Lazarus Group — Wikipedia","type":"other","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lazarus_Group"},{"credibility":1,"name":"Recently Hacked Exchange Liquid Global Secures $120M Loan From FTX — CoinDesk","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.coindesk.com/business/2021/08/25/recently-hacked-exchange-liquid-global-secures-120m-loan-from-ftx"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Hacked Liquid exchange receives $120M debt funding from FTX — CoinTelegraph","type":"news_article","url":"https://cointelegraph.com/news/hacked-liquid-exchange-receives-120m-debt-funding-from-ftx"},{"credibility":1,"name":"FTX Buys Crypto Exchange Liquid Group for Expansion in Japan — CoinDesk","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.coindesk.com/business/2022/02/02/ftx-buys-crypto-exchange-liquid-group-for-expansion-in-japan"},{"credibility":1,"name":"Crypto exchange FTX to buy Japanese rival Liquid for Asia expansion — CNBC","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/02/crypto-exchange-ftx-to-buy-japanese-rival-liquid.html"},{"credibility":1,"name":"FTX Closed Acquisition of Liquid Exchange a Few Days Late — CoinDesk","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.coindesk.com/business/2022/05/02/ftx-closed-acquisition-of-liquid-exchange-a-few-days-late"},{"credibility":2,"name":"FTX Acquires Liquid Group in Major Eastern Expansion — Decrypt","type":"news_article","url":"https://decrypt.co/91852/ftx-acquires-liquid-group-in-major-far-east-expansion"},{"credibility":1,"name":"Liquid Global, Crypto Exchange Owned by FTX, Halts Withdrawals — CoinDesk","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.coindesk.com/business/2022/11/15/liquid-global-crypto-exchange-bailed-out-by-ftx-halts-withdrawals"},{"credibility":2,"name":"FTX-Owned Crypto Exchange Liquid Suspends Trading for Bankruptcy Proceedings — CryptoNews","type":"news_article","url":"https://cryptonews.com/news/ftx-owned-crypto-exchange-liquid-suspends-trading-for-bankruptcy-proceedings-heres-what-happened/"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Bankruptcy of FTX — Wikipedia","type":"other","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bankruptcy_of_FTX"},{"credibility":1,"name":"FTX Trading Ltd. Restructuring Administration Cases — Kroll","type":"court_filing","url":"https://restructuring.ra.kroll.com/FTX/"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Making a claim on the FTX Claims Portal — Liquid Help Center","type":"official","url":"https://help.liquid.com/en/articles/8165529-making-a-claim-on-the-ftx-claims-portal"},{"credibility":2,"name":"QUOINE is the First Global Cryptocurrency FinTech Company to Receive License from Japan FSA — PR Newswire","type":"official","url":"https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/quoine-is-the-first-global-cryptocurrency-fintech-company-to-receive-license-from-japan-financial-services-agency-300528136.html"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Crypto exchange Liquid attains Japanese derivatives licence — CoinTelegraph","type":"news_article","url":"https://cointelegraph.com/news/crypto-exchange-liquid-attains-japanese-derivatives-licence"},{"credibility":3,"name":"Mike Kayamori Co-Founder and CEO — Crunchbase","type":"other","url":"https://www.crunchbase.com/person/mike-kayamori"},{"credibility":3,"name":"FTX acquires Liquid Global — Crunchbase Acquisition Profile","type":"other","url":"https://www.crunchbase.com/acquisition/ftx-exchange-acquires-liquid-global--9a5c6962"}],"summary":"Liquid Global (operating under its parent entity Quoine Pte. Ltd.) was a Japanese-headquartered cryptocurrency exchange founded in 2014 and rebranded from QUOINE to Liquid in 2018. In August 2021, the exchange suffered one of the largest exchange hacks of that year — approximately $97 million in Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, TRON, and other tokens stolen — with the attack subsequently attributed by Chainalysis to actors working on behalf of the DPRK, consistent with Lazarus Group tradecraft. FTX provided a $120 million emergency loan days after the breach, then acquired Liquid outright in April 2022; when FTX itself filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in November 2022, Liquid halted all withdrawals and customer funds were caught in the subsequent restructuring proceedings.","timeline":[{"date":"2014-01-01","event":"Quoine Pte. Ltd. co-founded by Mike Kayamori and Mario Gomez Lozada in Singapore; initially operates Japanese and Vietnamese crypto exchange.","source":"CoinTelegraph","source_url":"https://cointelegraph.com/top-people-in-crypto-and-blockchain-2020/mike-kayamori"},{"date":"2017-08-01","event":"QUOINE becomes the first global crypto fintech company to receive a license from Japan's Financial Services Agency (JFSA).","source":"PR Newswire","source_url":"https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/quoine-is-the-first-global-cryptocurrency-fintech-company-to-receive-license-from-japan-financial-services-agency-300528136.html"},{"date":"2018-01-01","event":"QUOINE rebrands the exchange platform to Liquid, launching it as a global crypto-fiat exchange targeting institutional and retail users.","source":"CoinDesk","source_url":"https://www.coindesk.com/business/2022/02/02/ftx-buys-crypto-exchange-liquid-group-for-expansion-in-japan"},{"date":"2020-01-01","event":"Liquid suffers a DNS hijack attack, the first significant security incident for the exchange.","source":"TRM Labs","source_url":"https://trmlabs.com/post/liquid-hack-the-second-time-around"},{"date":"2021-08-18","event":"Hackers gain unauthorized access to Liquid's MPC warm wallets operated by Quoine Pte. Ltd. and begin draining funds across Bitcoin, Ethereum, TRON, and XRP blockchains.","source":"TRM Labs","source_url":"https://trmlabs.com/post/liquid-hack-the-second-time-around"},{"date":"2021-08-19","event":"Liquid publicly announces the hack. Total theft confirmed at approximately $97 million. Liquid suspends deposits and withdrawals. Community coordination freezes an estimated $16 million in Ethereum tokens.","source":"CNBC","source_url":"https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/19/liquid-cryptocurrency-exchange-hack.html"},{"date":"2021-08-25","event":"Liquid Global announces a $120 million debt financing facility from FTX to stabilize its capital position following the hack.","source":"CoinDesk","source_url":"https://www.coindesk.com/business/2021/08/25/recently-hacked-exchange-liquid-global-secures-120m-loan-from-ftx"},{"date":"2021-10-01","event":"Quoine Corporation receives a Type I Financial Instruments Business license from Japan's FSA, permitting cryptocurrency derivatives trading.","source":"CoinTelegraph","source_url":"https://cointelegraph.com/news/crypto-exchange-liquid-attains-japanese-derivatives-licence"},{"date":"2022-01-14","event":"Chainalysis publishes its 2022 Crypto Crime Report, attributing the Liquid hack to DPRK-linked actors and documenting the $91M laundering trail through DEXs, Tornado Cash, and Asian fiat exchanges.","source":"Chainalysis","source_url":"https://www.chainalysis.com/blog/north-korean-hackers-have-prolific-year-as-their-total-unlaundered-cryptocurrency-holdings-reach-all-time-high/"},{"date":"2022-02-02","event":"FTX announces the acquisition of Liquid Group for an undisclosed amount, citing Japan market expansion and access to Quoine's FSA license.","source":"CoinDesk","source_url":"https://www.coindesk.com/business/2022/02/02/ftx-buys-crypto-exchange-liquid-group-for-expansion-in-japan"},{"date":"2022-04-04","event":"FTX closes the acquisition of Liquid Group, a few days after the originally scheduled closing date.","source":"CoinDesk","source_url":"https://www.coindesk.com/business/2022/05/02/ftx-closed-acquisition-of-liquid-exchange-a-few-days-late"},{"date":"2022-11-11","event":"FTX Trading Ltd. and 134 affiliates including Quoine Pte. Ltd. file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware.","source":"Wikipedia / Kroll","source_url":"https://restructuring.ra.kroll.com/FTX/"},{"date":"2022-11-15","event":"Liquid Global announces the suspension of all fiat and cryptocurrency withdrawals, citing FTX's Chapter 11 filing. QASH token falls over 25%.","source":"CoinDesk","source_url":"https://www.coindesk.com/business/2022/11/15/liquid-global-crypto-exchange-bailed-out-by-ftx-halts-withdrawals"},{"date":"2022-11-18","event":"Liquid Global halts all trading, days after suspending withdrawals.","source":"Bitcompare","source_url":"https://bitcompare.net/post/liquid-global-halts-trading-days-after-suspending-withdrawals"},{"date":"2023-09-29","event":"Deadline for Liquid/Quoine customers to submit claims through the FTX restructuring claims portal administered by Kroll.","source":"Liquid Help Center","source_url":"https://help.liquid.com/en/articles/8165529-making-a-claim-on-the-ftx-claims-portal"}]},"v":1}

   Verify offline (run on your own machine)

   python -m src.verify_decision 5ea824aa-acb4-4b62-ba95-fcb490658cc1copy