A crypto entrepreneur says his net worth dropped from $26.5 billion to $100,000 after his company collapsed.
Sam Bankman-Fried admitted it had been a “bad month” following the FTX bankruptcy, with thousands of deposits frozen.
The 30-year-old, who has positioned himself as the savior of the stricken company, is accused of misusing client funds and secretly transferring $10 billion out of the company.
To make matters worse, reports suggest that at least $1 billion has disappeared.
But at the New York Times’ DealBook summit, he insisted he never attempted fraud and said he was “appalled” by how things turned out.
FTX now has new management in the midst of bankruptcy, with its new CEO declaring that he has never seen “such a complete failure of corporate control” in his 40-year career.
Funds belonging to FTX users were allegedly commingled with funds from Alameda Research, a trading firm that Bankman-Fried also operated.
FTX, a cryptocurrency exchange operating around the world, collapsed after panicked traders pulled $6 billion from the company in just three days after a series of bombshell allegations.
Bankman-Fried said by video link from the Bahamas that he now has “virtually nothing” — just a working credit card — after his business collapsed.
He admitted his business had “completely failed” when it came to risk management, saying it was “very embarrassing in retrospect”.
Bankman Fried added: “No matter what happens and why it happened, it is my responsibility to do the right thing to our stakeholders, our customers, our investors, regulators around the world.”
While the embattled entrepreneur believes U.S. users should be able to get their money back in full, Bankman-Fried has warned in other interviews that international customers may only get back 20% to 25% of the funds they locked in FTX. %.
Several companies in the cryptocurrency space have collapsed in recent months, coinciding with a sharp drop in the value of bitcoin.
Some businesses have been accused of offering unbelievably high savings rates, while others have been likened to “Ponzi schemes”.
The Bahamas has opened a criminal investigation into the circumstances surrounding FTX’s death.