Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), the CEO and founder of collapsed crypto exchange FTX, made additional public remarks, beginning with a mea culpa on Twitter.
“I’m sorry (…)I f*cked up, and should have done better,” he tweeted. SBF claimed he mislabeled bank accounts, and thus was not aware of the amount of margin his company was using. His explanation fell short of people’s expectations. A typical response, from BenJammin.eth:
Many also criticized his comments directed at Changpeng Zhao (CZ), the founder and CEO of rival Binance: “At some point I might have more to say about a particular sparring partner, so to speak. But you know, glass houses. So for now, all I’ll say is: well played; you won.”
According to Reuters, SBF is looking for investors to pour more money into FTX, to the tune of $9.4 billion. Sources approached include Tron founder Justin Sun and Kraken, with Tether CTO Paolo Ardoino tweeting that the company had no intention of investing in FTX.
The Wall Street Journal reported that FTX had loaned sister company Alameda more than half of FTX’s $16 billion in customer funds. Alameda Research, which, according to Reuters, suffered a shortfall after the Voyager bankruptcy, will close up shop.
Meanwhile, employees of Alameda and FTX revealed eyebrow-raising details about the management of the companies – including the blurring of personal and professional relationships. CoinDesk reported, “Many are former co-workers from quantitative trading firm Jane Street, others [Bankman-Fried] met at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, his alma mater. All 10 are, or used to be, paired up in romantic relationships with each other.”
An anonymous source told CoinDesk, “The whole operation was run by a gang of kids in the Bahamas.”
