Beleaguered FTX Founder Sam Bankman-Fried Just Started A Substack Newsletter
Substack has garnered undeserved infamy as the haven for canceled folks, but the latest "writer" to onboard the newsletter platform won't do it any favors. Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced CEO of fallen crypto giant FTX, signed up on Substack and published a blog worth over 2,300 words. Titled "FTX Pre-Mortem Overview," the piece talks about the circumstances prior to the crypto exchange's implosion and the subsequent bankruptcy filing with billions in lost assets.
Bankman-Fried blames the crisis on three factors: an asset overflow on Alameda Research's balance sheet, an industry-wide crypto crunch, and rival Binance's decision to offload its FTX token holdings. In November last year, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao announced via tweet that his company was dumping its entire stash of FTT coins, sparking a withdrawal frenzy at FTX, which the latter had to pause due to a liquidity crunch.
— SBF (@SBF_FTX) January 12, 2023
In the panic, FTX reached out to Binance with an acquisition offer, which was initially accepted, but subsequently canceled. There was no coming back after that, and, like clockwork, FTX filed for bankruptcy. Top FTX executives have since pleaded guilty to multiple charges of financial misconduct, while Bankman-Fried has pleaded not guilty to criminal charges following his arrest in the Bahamas and extradition to the U.S. Interestingly, Bankman-Fried claims that FTX had funding offers worth over $4 billion during the peak crisis, and if it was given a few weeks, things would have turned out differently.
Still maintaining innocence
Notably, Bankman-Fried maintains that he "didn't steal funds" and "didn't stash billions away." In the Substack post he added that he is willing to use the entirety of his Robinhood stake to pay back FTX customers. He further claims there FTX still has enough assets for its customers, of which $3.5 billion are being held by authorities in the Bahamas alone. Even though the former FTX chief counts Alameda as the epicenter of the catastrophe, Bankman-Fried claims that he hasn't been in charge of Alameda for the past few years.
The former prince of crypto still claims "very substantial recovery remains potentially available" and that the company "should be able to return all customer funds." Bankman-Fried adds that FTX still has billions of dollars worth of assets, and that he will exhaust almost all of his personal assets to pay folks that have lost money. Bankman-Fried also recently said in an interview that he has almost nothing left following FTX's bankruptcy. At one point, his net worth was around $26 billion.
Bankman-Fried, who is currently under house arrest, also shared the balance sheet of FTX's U.S. subsidiary and expressed astonishment as to why the worried customers haven't yet been reimbursed despite the assets being there.