With SBF's cryptocurrency empire collapsing with alarming speed earlier this month, questions continue to linger over what sparked the collapse of FTX and Alameda Research.
In SBF’s latest interview video, he talks about how he could have done something differently, saying he thinks FTX now has a “50% chance” if Binance’s CZ hadn’t voiced his concerns about FTX.
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FTX.US is 100% solvent
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Who is the FTX "hacker" who withdrew $400 million?
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Regret FTX files for bankruptcy
In the interview, SBF stated, “I truly believe that if I hadn’t filed for bankruptcy, all users would have been intact and would be able to withdraw money on FTX right now.”
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Why is withdrawal only available in the Bahamas?
SBF's lawyers were unhappy with his decision to speak publicly in the early days of the FTX fiasco.
SBF said his lawyer told him: "You have to promise that you never, never, never say you screwed up again."
During the call, SBF provided some background on why he reopened withdrawals only for residents of the Bahamas, where SBF and FTX are located, for a short period of time after suspending the FTX platform.
Initially, FTX claimed this was to satisfy Bahamian regulators. The Bahamian government disputes this, and in his call with Fong (the crypto whistleblower):
“I alerted the Bahamas government a day in advance that we were going to do this. They didn’t respond. So we went ahead and did it. I did it because I thought it was critical to the future of the exchange,”
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Did FTX leave a back door?
As for whether SBF created a "backdoor" to quietly transfer user funds to Alameda without attracting attention.
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Huge Donations to Democrats
SBF, one of the biggest donors to this month's U.S. midterm elections, once well-connected with politicians and regulators, has come under intense scrutiny in recent weeks as it became clear his business empire may be a fraud.
His large donations to Democrats have sparked controversy and conspiracy theories, but the SBF told Fong that he also made unknown "surreptitious" donations to Republicans.
To explain why he's trying to make these donations without drawing attention, SBF said most journalists are "secret liberals" and he just "didn't want to have that fight."
As for why SBF continued to speak out rather than stay silent after his house of cards collapsed, he said: "At the end of the day, I started to trust my instincts about this kind of thing".
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Binance’s role in the FTX crash
In the interview, SBF blamed a perfect storm of events for FTX's debacle. Still, he should have been more prepared.
"It's a combination of the crypto market crash in the spring that wiped out 50% of asset value, combined with a bad start to the month where we saw related asset prices drop 50% in two days, plus a full blown bank run on FTX , and margin positions on FTX are much larger than they appear.” SBF said, “All of this combined means that what appeared to be extremely well-capitalized positions on the exchange have actually been unable to fulfill their obligations over the past six months. liquidity obligations."
Asked if he thought FTX would be fine by now if Binance's CZ hadn't expressed doubts about FTT following CoinDesk's scoop on Alameda's unstable balance sheet.
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Pity
SBF noted that, in retrospect, he wished there had been someone else in the firm dedicated to risk management and liquidity, another problem being that the firm was too spread out. In particular, he noted that FTX spent a lot of energy trying to get a regulatory license, "whereas we could have had more options and spent less time on this."
SBF also said he felt especially sad for those who believed in him and trusted him. As for himself, he said: "I don't know what my future holds; it's very unclear and certainly not the future I once thought it would be."
