Sam Bankman-Fried Has Almost Nothing Left After FTX Collapse
Fallen crypto mogul Sam Bankman-Fried has almost nothing left in his wallet following the monumental collapse of his FTX cryptocurrency empire, or so he claims. In his first public appearance following the FTX implosion, Bankman-Fried talked extensively about the whole saga in a rather revealing interview with journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin at The New York Times's DealBook event. The whole interview is available here alongside the transcript. What really stood out was Bankman-Fried's admission that he is virtually broke.
When asked how much money he still has left, Bankman-Fried curtly replied that he had "close to nothing." The former Prince Charming of the crypto industry further added that "everything was in the company." However, the wayward ways in which the company's finances were regulated remain a puzzle, both for its new management as well as regulators that are also investigating the possibility of a hack.
"A substantial amount of assets have either been stolen or are missing," a partner at the law firm representing FTX was quoted as saying by The New York Times. A couple of weeks ago, Reuters put the value of the missing customer assets at $1 billion, but the value could very well reach the $2 billion mark. Interestingly, a Semafor report claims that Bankman-Fried has stake worth around $100 million in Twitter, a claim which the company's new CEO Elon Musk denied.
A monumental tale of crypto cataclysm
During the interview, Sorkin seemed surprised at Bankman-Fried's claim that he had "close to nothing left" in his account and asked him whether he didn't invest a portion of his billions in other ventures. Bankman-Fried first said that he didn't have any hidden funds stashed elsewhere, despite numerous industry watchers flagging a few suspicious crypto transactions in the midnight hours of the FTX implosion and rumors that Bankman-Fried may have a few other undisclosed investments worth millions.
"I think I have one working credit card left. I think it might be $100,000 or something like that in that bank account," the former FTX chief said. He further added that whatever loans he secured, he put them into running FTX. According to Forbes, Bankman-Fried was worth $22.5 billion before he even turned 30. In just over a year, his net worth has dropped to almost nothing.
FTX has already filed for bankruptcy, the company reportedly owes about $3 billion to its top 50 investors, with the top backer being owed as much as $226 million, while the investor lowest on the list still commands a pot worth $21 million. However, the number of creditors that FTX owes money could be well over a million, which is not surprising, considering it was once the third-largest crypto exchange in the world and was flying high with a peak valuation of $32 billion.