Sam Bankman- Fried, founder and CEO of FTX, broke his silence on Thursday morning with a lengthy statement taking responsibility for the exchange's downfall.
The founder gave a full explanation of the crisis in a thread on the social networking site.
Bankman- Fried said he should have done better. I should've been talking more recently.
The CEO said the problems are limited to FTX's international arm which is not subject to US banking regulations. Bankman- Fried says total holdings are enough to satisfy the company's debts. The exchange is experiencing a shortage of funds, leaving customers unable to get their money back.
I was off on my sense of users' margin because of a poor internal labeling of bank related accounts. The CEO thought it was much lower.
The exchange saw $5 billion worth of withdrawals in a single day. A run on the bank and a crisis of confidence in the company's infrastructure were caused by FTX International being only able to fulfill 80% of the requests.
Bankman- Fried said that they are where they are. That is on me. I would like to apologize.
Bankman-Fried's personal wealth exceeded $20 billion at its peak, making him one of the most successful figures of the cryptocurrencies boom. The past two weeks have seen a lot of wealth evaporate as prices have plummeted.
FTX's worth was marked down to zero by a recent report. The company's previous value was as high as $32 billion.
FTX's collapse has been worsened by a short-lived takeover attempt from a rival exchange, which would have provided the company with the necessary cash to cover withdrawals. Changpeng "CZ" Zhao abruptly withdrew the following day, citing "corporate due diligence, as well as the latest news reports regarding mishandled customer funds."
Bankman- Fried has a trading firm called Alameda Research that is deeply involved with FTX. Bankman- Fried said that Alameda is winding down trading.
There are still FTX users who have not been able to retrieve their funds, and the remaining FTX organization is hoping to raise money to make those users whole. A number of players are in talks with us. How that ends up will be seen.
The exchange's future is still uncertain. Radical transparency will be FTX's first priority in any scenario in which it continues to operate. If I'm not wanted, I won't be here.
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