FTX Roundup: SBF Gives Interview, Stolen Funds Move, and Politicians Return Donations

Weeks after its collapse, FTX stays a focus of the crypto information cycle.

SBF Interview Leaked

FTX CEO Bankman-Fried made headlines on Tuesday, November 29, after he gave a phone interview to YouTuber Tiffany Fong by which he supplied larger context into a lot of his earlier actions.

Throughout the dialog, Bankman-Fried supplied particulars on why FTX briefly reopened withdrawals within the Bahamas throughout its collapse. Whereas early statements urged that the corporate had complied with regulators, Bankman-Fried admitted that the corporate had reached out to regulators and acquired no response inside sooner or later.

“They didn’t reply, after which we did it,” Bankman-Fried stated, suggesting that the choice “was important to the change with the ability to have a future.”

Bankman-Fried additionally stated that his attorneys instructed him to not admit to wrongdoing, referring to an apology he wrote on Twitter on November 10 by which he wrote, “I’m sorry… I fucked up.” Bankman-Fried stated that his attorneys instructed him: “It’s a must to promise that you simply by no means, ever, ever say you fucked up once more.”

Different FTX Developments

Different details regarding FTX have come to gentle. Immediately, unbiased crypto sleuth ZachXBT claimed to have tracked the movement of funds stolen from FTX in early November. ZachXBT believed that the perpetrator transferred 255 BTC ($4.1 million) to the crypto change OKX after mixing funds through ChipMixer.

The Texas Tribune said that Texas Democratic candidate Beto O’Rourke had returned a $1 million donation from Bankman-Fried. O’Rourke reportedly returned the donation as a result of it was unsolicited, not due to controversy round FTX. The funds had been returned on November 4 earlier than the change’s collapse. Relatedly, the authors of the In style Info substack said not less than seven other politicians had additionally returned funds donated by FTX leaders earlier than November 16.

Lastly, BlockFi’s chapter proceedings have revealed that the lending agency has deeper connections to FTX, together with $335 million of belongings frozen on FTX’s change. BlockFi has additionally sued Bankman-Fried in an try and seize Robinhood shares as soon as pledged as collateral. The submitting yesterday urged that the corporate owes FTX $275 million.

Disclosure: On the time of writing, the writer of this piece owned BTC, ETH, and different digital belongings.