Alameda Research files suit against Ivanov, founder of Waves, to recover $90 million

Alameda Research, the trading arm of the bankrupt crypto exchange FTX, has filed a lawsuit against Aleksandr Ivanov, the founder of the Waves blockchain, and his related entities.

The Nov. 10 court filing revealed that Alameda is seeking to recover at least $90 million, which it claims belongs to the company and debtors involved in FTX’s bankruptcy. Alameda reported that it had previously deposited these assets with Vires.Finance, a liquidity platform of the Waves network.

Alameda seeks recovery of $90 million in assets

In March 2022, Alameda transferred approximately $80 million in USDT and USDC stablecoins to Vires, which was later converted to approximately $90 million in USDN. The filing notes that Vires users were incentivized to deposit funds into the Waves blockchain through Vires to earn rewards, accrue interest, and gain governance rights within the Vires DAO.

According to Alameda, Ivanov promoted Waves and Vires as profit opportunities for users, but allegedly manipulated the value of WAVES through a series of secret transactions while diverting funds from Vires. As the scheme began to unravel, WAVES lost more than 95% of its value, resulting in $530 million in losses for Vires users.

The filing also alleges that Ivanov publicly accused the trading company of destabilizing the Waves ecosystem to deflect blame. Privately, the executive tried to extort Alameda, threatening to freeze his assets if he did not support Vires, the court document revealed.

After Alameda refused, Ivanov used his control over Vires’ DAO to block withdrawals of his assets, converting them to USDN. Ivanov sought further concessions from Alameda by promising access to fiat assets if he complied, but Alameda refused.

Although he promised to cooperate, Ivanov participated in only one call and ignored all subsequent contacts. In 2023, Ivanov claimed to have dissolved the entities that managed Waves and Vires, prompting Alameda to seek recovery of assets and damages for fraud and conversion.

FTX Legal Battle Expands to Binance and CZ

Over the past few days, FTX’s ownership has filed several lawsuits against various parties to claim funds for creditors. Key people named in those lawsuits include SkyBridge Capital CEO and former Trump administration official Anthony Scaramucci, among others.

More recently, FTX has targeted Binance and its former CEO, Changpeng ‘CZ’ Zhao. The latest lawsuit seeks to recover $1.8 billion, which FTX claims was fraudulently transferred by its former CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried.

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