Cryptocurrency exchange FTX is currently struggling, and Origin Protocol’s CEO believes the company didn’t keep its promise to its customers.
FTX, one of the leading cryptocurrency exchanges in the world, has been facing liquidity problems over the past couple of days.
The exchange had to pause withdrawals on its platform as it couldn’t handle the requests issued by customers. While commenting on FTX’s recent struggle, Origin Protocol’s CEO, Josh Fraser, told Fortune Magazine that the collapse is massive. He said;
“This is absolutely massive. SBF has been very visible in the industry—from sponsoring stadiums and appearing on the cover of magazines to being in Washington D.C. talking to regulators and calling for more regulations of crypto—he’s been really working to make a name for himself and has been a very trusted person. A lot of people respected him and viewed him as a good actor.”
Fraser added that despite FTX’s success in recent years, the crypto exchange had failed to keep its promises to its customers. He added that;
“In the end, however, it seems FTX was not all that it appeared and had not been keeping its promises to its customers, This includes promises about not lending out customer deposits and that customer assets were safe with FTX. Clearly, that was not the case. Assets were not safe. So this is absolutely huge, and unfortunately, a lot of innocent people are getting hurt by this.”
Some crypto experts maintain that keeping crypto assets on exchanges is a bad idea. Fraser supports this claim, citing the popular phrase, “Not your keys, not your coins.” He added that;
“FDX is not the first exchange to fail. The whole point of crypto is that you don’t have to trust other people anymore. Crypto was designed to save us from this exact problem—these opaque systems where you don’t know what is being done with your money.”
Binance previously agreed to acquire FTX but has now called the deal off after looking at FTX’s books. According to Binance, FTX’s situation is beyond what it can salvage at this moment.