Sam Bankman-Fried and FTX
Crypto winter is here, FTX exchange has collapsed. Founder CEO Sam Bankman-Fried has resigned. The company has entered into bankruptcy under chapter 11. The newest scandal in a long list is drama and personality. The Crypto world is a wild west, moving on vibes. Cycling between massive highs and lows. Bad actors are commonplace, abusing cult of personality. Coinbase ran a story based on the leaked balance sheet for FTX. Huge liabilities with few assets. Assets held by the company were its own token. Begs the question what happened to all the real money?
Sam’s former business Alameda acted as a trading firm for FTX. Herd panicked withdrawal coins stored, unable to cover withdrawals. Talk about a bailout and takeover came and disappeared. The company went bankrupt within 72 hours. Journalists had spent months asking questions. How could promised low-risk but high-yield return exists? A derivative platform that took huge risks and used customer deposits. Acting as a casino with a bank-style function. The truth was simple FTX was a Ponzi scheme. Giant fraud that used client’s funds, unclear what happened with the money.
Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me
Fried promised to reform the system and be different. Wanting to make his business model legal for more victims. As it turns out he was the same old story. Flashy sales pitch, taking customers’ money. Sam tried to look legit, buying lobbying power. Biggest so far but doubt the last. A long list of scandals within the crypto world. Conmen and scams are commonplace. Luckily the scams have not infected the rest of the system. Law has been slow to act, slowly building a case. The fact nobody wanted or could provide oversight is a problem. Poor accounting practices, make Ponzi schemes common. Grey area trying to do just enough to function within the existing financial markets. Exchanges are the poster boy for Fintech.
New CEO was appointed during bankruptcy. John Ray with over 40 years of experience including Enron.
“Never in my career have I seen such a complete failure of corporate controls and such a complete absence of trustworthy financial information as occurred here. “From compromised systems integrity and faulty regulatory oversight abroad, to the concentration of control in the hands of a very small group of inexperienced, unsophisticated and potentially compromised individuals, this situation is unprecedented.”
Words are shocking. Why was nobody looking at how the corporate structure looked or worked? Why was this allowed within existing frameworks? Blamed is shared across many regulatory bodies. Worse is most likely yet to come. Other exchanges have similar problems, Genesis looks likely to go under.
Sam did an interview for Vox. Hard to argue Sam is anything other than a fraud. Carefully forming an image, that was one big lie. Against the advice of his lawyers, he keeps giving interviews. Normally you would stay low and say nothing. Providing much in terms of evidence against himself. The lack of paper tail is making matters complicated. Going to take some time before any legal case is taken against him. The American justice system is slow but unstoppable. Authorities around the world are watching things carefully.
Regulators are moving to freeze or halt operations. The Justice Department and S.E.C are investigating with others following suit. Big questions for the Bahamas, HQ for FTX. The Bahamas created a light-touch regulatory framework. Played host to SBF, hosting a cryptocurrency conference. Danced to his tune, now they have eggs on their face. Huge questions about the corporate governance system. The reputation for the islands to do business is now ruined.
The lesson here is regulatory oversight is needed and regulation is required. Can’t let companies write the rules for themselves. Cooperation across borders with regulatory oversight is also required. Bitcoin has a degree of built-in transparency, its exchanges do not. If exchanges want access to existing financial markets, they need to follow the rules.
Binance decided to publish BTC proof of reserves. Now serious questions about that exchange and reports of criminal activity. Not exactly a great time to be linked with the cryptocurrency world at the moment. This is just the tip of the iceberg flood of news stories. The big problem here is the ecosystem is controlled by a small number of players. Deeply interconnected relationships slowly destroy each other.
More worrying is the connections he was able to forge. With people not asking questions. Basic due diligence went out the window. The good news is that venture capitalists were fools, the rest of the system avoided touching it. I don’t think technology has a future but lessons must be learnt.
Fear is contagion from this could spread far and wide. Bringing down the whole cryptocurrency house of cards. So far contagion has been limited but if Binance is next who knows?
Update –
I started writing this about one month ago. SBF has now been arrested and charged with defrauding investors. According to the New York Times, 12 charges in total so far. The US has requested his extradition from the Bahamas. Bahamian authorities have opened their own investigations. Therefore, starting his legal woes could take years before everything is settled. Anybody involved with FTX is likely to also be in legal hot water. Before he was arrested, leaked a transcript of his testimony for congress.
Possibly more charges can come his way as more things are uncovered. Americans are claiming oversight over Sam’s crimes, the Bahamas wants to review his crimes too. Long fight legal battle is just starting..