In an interview by The New York Times Andrew Ross Sorkin at the media house’s annual DealBook Summit, Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), the former Chief Executive of the collapsed crypto exchange FTX, said the FTX US was fully solvent according to his knowledge.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- In the interview, SBF admitted he “screwed up” and made mistakes while CEO at FTX.
- SBF said he should have focused more on risk management and protecting customers.
- On philanthropy, SBF said that his donations were “mostly for pandemic prevention.”
SBF has been quite vocal about the collapse of FTX on social media platforms, especially on Twitter. His interview at the DealBook Summit on Wednesday was virtually his first time to appear in the media spotlight in person since the fall of the FTX crypto exchange.
During the interview, SBF addressed a number of issues including his role in the collapse of FTX, his philanthropy, real estate in the Bahamas, and everything else in between.
SBF admitted that he messed up and did huge mistakes as the CEO at FTX and said that he should have focused more on protecting customers and risk management.
FTX US is ‘fully solvent”
During the interview, SBF also said that he was optimistic that some customers, particularly those from the US could be sorted out although he was quick to add that he could not promise anything.
Commenting on the FTX US solvency, SBF said:
“The US platform—the US regulated platform with American users—to my knowledge, that’s fully solvent. That’s fully funded and I believe that withdrawals could be opened up today and everyone could be made whole from that.”
SBF also commented on LedgerX and FTX US derivatives saying that the FTX US derivatives and LedgerX might “even be running right now.”
LedgerX was acquired by FTX earlier this year and is reportedly preparing to transfer $175 million towards the FTX bankruptcy proceedings.
On his philanthropic nature, SBF said that his donations were “mostly for pandemic prevention.”
Commenting on his parents allegedly purchasing 19 properties worth $121 million in the Bahamas over the past two years, SBF said:
“It was not intended to be their long-term property. I don’t know how that was paid for.”