Up to 80,000 British cryptocurrency traders are feared to have lost money in the collapse of online exchange FTX.
According to American bankruptcy proceedings, around eight per cent of the company's users were based in the United Kingdom.
A Delaware court heard yesterday the proportion of the million creditors now owed money by FTX suggested 80,000 could be left out of cash.
The Financial Conduct Authority has previously warned smartphone trading apps with 'game like' features can make investors act like problem gamblers.
In court US restructuring lawyer James Bromley accused FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried of running the company like a 'personal fiefdom'.
Mr Bromley added: 'What we are dealing with is a different sort of animal.'
'Unfortunately, the FTX debtors were not particularly well run, and that is an understatement.
The collapse of FTX, once one of the world's largest cryptocurrency exchanges, has left an estimated one million creditors facing losses totaling billions of dollars.
At the hearing, an FTX attorney also said the company spent $300 million on real estate in the Bahamas, largely homes and vacation properties for senior staff.
The company intends to sell off healthy business units, اسواق العملات الرقمية an attorney said.
US restructuring lawyer James Bromley accused FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, pictured, of running the company like a 'personal fiefdom'.
The first bankruptcy hearing for FTX was held in Delaware court on Tuesday and heard details
They also said the company continues to suffer cyberattacks as bankruptcy begins, and that 'substantial' assets are missing.
It appeared to confirm earlier reports that hundreds of millions worth of cryptocurrency had apparently been stolen by hackers in the chaos as the company collapsed.
FTX's cash balance of $1.24 billion as of Sunday was 'substantially higher' than previously thought, a filing Monday night by Edgar Mosley of Alvarez & Marshal, a consultancy firm advising FTX, said.
It includes around $400 million in accounts related to Alameda Research, the crypto trading firm owned by FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, and $172 million at FTX's Japan arm.
FTX, which said on Saturday it has launched a strategic review of its global assets and is preparing for the sale or reorganization of some businesses, had previously said that it owes its 50 biggest creditors nearly $3.1 billion.