The FTX cryptocurrency exchange collapse has sent ripples throughout the financial world and in the homes of regular, everyday citizens. FTX is a company headed up by Samuel Bankman-Fried, a 30-year-old financial entrepreneur from California. Bankman-Fried (also known as SBF) and his company rose to prominence pretty much overnight just about three years ago.
FTX was formed off of the company’s base crypto token, FTT. This token is essentially worthless and has now been discovered to simply be a tool for SBF to raise real money to keep the company going. Some of this money was allegedly used to save his failing hedge fund. This is, of course, a felony.
The house of cards came crumbling down after the co-founder of another crypto company called Binance (Changpeng Zhao) decided to pull the company’s holdings of FTT. This caused a “run” on the “banks” of FTX, causing them to not be able to pay out money that was owed to people who had invested in their platform. Investors who poured into the company lost pretty much all of their money unless they were part of the group that pulled out.
Interestingly enough, FTX was formed just 13 days after President Joe Biden announced that he would be running for President. This is an important fact to note considering SBF became the second largest donor to the Democratic party essentially overnight. His mother, Barbara Fried, is a Stanford lawyer and professor who is also a big-time fundraiser for the Democratic party. This story is much deeper than just a simple failed crypto token and platform.
SOURCES:
From $16 Billion to Zero: Dem Megadonor Sam Bankman-Fried Has Lost All His Money
Miami Heat to cut ties with bankrupt FTX, rename arena
Hundreds of Millions of Dollars Drained From FTX Overnight in ‘Unauthorized’ Transfers
Exclusive: At least $1 billion of client funds missing at FTX | Reuters
Alameda, FTX Executives Are Said to Have Known FTX Was Using Customer Funds – WSJ
FTX held less than $1bn in liquid assets against $9bn in liabilities | Financial Times
Sam Bankman-Fried reportedly denies fleeing to Argentina, says he’s still in the Bahamas
Tom Brady, Gisele Bündchen now caught up in FTX collapse
Embattled Cryptocurrency Founder Spent $40 Million on Midterms
Comments are closed.