FTX is scrambling to raise about $9.4 billion from investors and rivals, a source said on Thursday, as Chief Executive Sam Bankman-Fried urgently seeks to save the cryptocurrency exchange that has been buffeted by a rush of customer withdrawals.

Bankman-Fried has discussed raising $1 billion each from Justin Sun, the founder of crypto token Tron, rival exchange OKX and stablecoin platform Tether, according to the source who has direct knowledge of the matter.

He is seeking the remainder from other funds, including current investors in FTX such as venture capital fund Sequoia Capital, the source added.

It was not clear, however, whether Bankman-Fried will be able to raise the funds he needs and these investors would participate.

Tether’s chief technology officer, Paolo Ardoino, tweeted that it had “no plans to invest in or lend assets to FTX.”

One of the 30 to 40 investors in FTX’s data room is Daniel Loeb’s Third Point, but according to a source familiar with the matter the hedge fund is not discussing giving FTX more money.

FTX and Sequoia did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the latest news of talks. OKX also was not immediately available for comment on the latest news of talks. Earlier on Thursday, however, OKX told Reuters it had been approached this week by Bankman-Fried, who described liabilities of $7 billion that needed covering fast.

“That was too much for us,” Lennix Lai, director of financial markets at OKX, told Reuters.

FTX also got hit by the Bahamas Securities Commission, where the company is based, freezing assets of FTX Digital Markets “and related parties”. FTX Digital Markets Ltd is a subsidiary of FTX, licensed in the Bahamas.

“The Commission has proactively dealt with the situation and continues to do so,” the commission said adding “the prudent course of action” was to put the unit into “provisional liquidation to preserve assets and stabilize the company”.

FTX did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In a tweet, FTX said it had reached a deal with Tron to establish a special facility that would allow clients to swap some crypto assets from FTX to external wallets. It said initially $13 million of assets will be deployed to facilitate the swaps.

A spokesperson for Tron said this was the “first step for us” but “we are open to talks about other rescue plans” and that the conversation was ongoing. A credit line was “no doubt one of the topics” but the spokesperson said it had not been discussed in detail.

Earlier in the day, Bankman-Fried said in tweets and a memo to employees seen by Reuters that he was in talks with “a number of players” in the crypto sector, including Sun, after a potential rescue deal with larger rival Binance fell apart.

But he added that he did not want to “imply anything about the odds of success.”

Bankman-Fried also said his trading firm Alameda Research, which sources have said was partly behind FTX’s problems, was winding down trading.

FTX’s predicament marks a stunning downfall for the 30-year-old crypto executive who was once worth nearly $17 billion, but in a matter of days transformed from his status of industry savior to the one who needed saving.

The problems at FTX, one of the world’s largest crypto exchanges, have triggered a broader crisis of confidence in cryptocurrencies, with bitcoin falling below $16,000 overnight for the first time since late 2020.

FTX is scrambling to raise about $9.4 billion from investors and rivals, a source said on Thursday, as Chief Executive Sam Bankman-Fried urgently seeks to save the cryptocurrency exchange that has been buffeted by a rush of customer withdrawals.

Bankman-Fried has discussed raising $1 billion each from Justin Sun, the founder of crypto token Tron, rival exchange OKX and stablecoin platform Tether, according to the source who has direct knowledge of the matter.

He is seeking the remainder from other funds, including current investors in FTX such as venture capital fund Sequoia Capital, the source added.

It was not clear, however, whether Bankman-Fried will be able to raise the funds he needs and these investors would participate.

Tether’s chief technology officer, Paolo Ardoino, tweeted that it had “no plans to invest in or lend assets to FTX.”

One of the 30 to 40 investors in FTX’s data room is Daniel Loeb’s Third Point, but according to a source familiar with the matter the hedge fund is not discussing giving FTX more money.

FTX and Sequoia did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the latest news of talks. OKX also was not immediately available for comment on the latest news of talks. Earlier on Thursday, however, OKX told Reuters it had been approached this week by Bankman-Fried, who described liabilities of $7 billion that needed covering fast.

“That was too much for us,” Lennix Lai, director of financial markets at OKX, told Reuters.

FTX also got hit by the Bahamas Securities Commission, where the company is based, freezing assets of FTX Digital Markets “and related parties”. FTX Digital Markets Ltd is a subsidiary of FTX, licensed in the Bahamas.

“The Commission has proactively dealt with the situation and continues to do so,” the commission said adding “the prudent course of action” was to put the unit into “provisional liquidation to preserve assets and stabilize the company”.

FTX did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In a tweet, FTX said it had reached a deal with Tron to establish a special facility that would allow clients to swap some crypto assets from FTX to external wallets. It said initially $13 million of assets will be deployed to facilitate the swaps.

A spokesperson for Tron said this was the “first step for us” but “we are open to talks about other rescue plans” and that the conversation was ongoing. A credit line was “no doubt one of the topics” but the spokesperson said it had not been discussed in detail.

Earlier in the day, Bankman-Fried said in tweets and a memo to employees seen by Reuters that he was in talks with “a number of players” in the crypto sector, including Sun, after a potential rescue deal with larger rival Binance fell apart.

But he added that he did not want to “imply anything about the odds of success.”

Bankman-Fried also said his trading firm Alameda Research, which sources have said was partly behind FTX’s problems, was winding down trading.

FTX’s predicament marks a stunning downfall for the 30-year-old crypto executive who was once worth nearly $17 billion, but in a matter of days transformed from his status of industry savior to the one who needed saving.

The problems at FTX, one of the world’s largest crypto exchanges, have triggered a broader crisis of confidence in cryptocurrencies, with bitcoin falling below $16,000 overnight for the first time since late 2020.