The Ghost Of FTX: Bankrupt Exchange Haunts Customers With Phantom Debit Card Deliveries

Like that ex who just won’t go away, FTX is finding ways to pop up in people’s lives — most recently, through the delivery of its branded debit cards. It’s like the cryptocurrency exchange, which declared bankruptcy in November, is saying, “You thought it was over between us? It’s not over till I say it’s over.”

A delay in processing at card issuer Evolve Bank & Trust is likely to blame for this harmless but ghostly snafu. The website to activate the cards is no longer operational, and the cards themselves don’t work.

This isn’t the first time Memphis-based Evolve Bank & Trust has been involved with a cryptocurrency company that went belly up. The bank also issued cards for BlockFi, an exchange that filed for bankruptcy in November, too.

Following the two bankruptcies, Evolve informed cardholders that their funds were safe, but inaccessible until the bankruptcy cases were resolved.

“This was a clear delay in the customer’s mail service,” an Evolve spokesperson told Forbes. “Card services ceased with FTX’s bankruptcy filing. By law, Evolve is holding onto these balances until the court overseeing the FTX bankruptcy allows us to release these funds back to the customer.”

Reports of the phantom card deliveries came just as FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was receiving some news of his own. On Tuesday, the U.S. added a charge of conspiring to violate the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act to the laundry list of misdeeds he’s already accused of. Prosecutors allege Bankman-Fried paid $40 million in bribes to Chinese government officials to unfreeze Alameda Research assets held inside the country. He pleaded not guilty in a New York federal court on Thursday.

With the historic nature of FTX’s collapse and the continuing drama of L’Affaire Bankman-Fried, those FTX-branded debit cards will come in handy for something: they’ll make great souvenirs.