FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried Speaks Live: Here’s His Comments!

At the moment cryptocurrency Sam Bankman-Fried, ex-CEO of FTX, one of the most controversial names in the world, makes statements at the conference he attends. Here are the headlines from SBF’s speech.

Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried said in a highly anticipated interview with CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin at the Dealbook Summit that he did not “do a good job” in meeting his responsibilities to regulators, customers and investors.

Bankman-Fried said, “I never tried to scam anyone. I saw this as a thriving business and was shocked by what happened this month.” said.

FTX CEO: “I Learned Most of What Happened in the Last Month”

Sorkin asked Bankman-Fried why FTX and Bankman-Fried had access to customer funds. The SBF replied:

“I wasn’t running Alameda, I didn’t know exactly what was going on. I didn’t know the size of their positions, most of which I’ve learned in the last month.”

Sorkin said Bankman-Fried was video-connected from the Bahamas. Sorkin pressed Bankman-Fried about Alameda’s gambling on controversial cryptocurrencies and read a letter from an investor who lost $2 million in savings.

“The US platform (FTX.US) is fully solvency and funded,” said Bankman-Fried. I believe withdrawals can be opened today and they can all be made.” said.

However, the famous name said that he no longer lives in his home in the Bahamas.

Bankman-Fried argued that he was not aware of Alameda’s risk. He said that 40% of FTX’s volume in 2019 came from Alameda. Bankman-Fried claimed that by 2022, that figure had dropped to 2%, leading him to believe that the risks to FTX had decreased.

“In 2018, FTX didn’t have bank accounts,” said Bankman-Fried, as the reason why users were asked to transfer funds to an account on behalf of Alameda and not directly to FTX.

Since the collapse of FTX on November 11, rumors have been swirling about whether Bankman-Fried will be present at the event. The former CEO of FTX confirmed in a tweet last week that he would be attending the meeting to speak with Sorkin.

SBF added the following to his speech:

“I really realized there was a problem when the FTT tweet came out on November 6… We saw an influx of withdrawals into the company. I was worried about what would happen.

On November 6, 7 and 8, I started to worry that FTX would not be able to process customer withdrawals.

This was a crash that occurred specifically with assets associated with Alameda Research… I should have guessed this would happen.

I did not knowingly mix the funds.”

“You were using FTT and Solana as collateral,” Sorkin said about the company’s use of Solana and FTT tokens as collateral. Did you describe them properly?” posed a question. The SBF answered this question as follows:

“I wasn’t defining them the way I wanted in terms of risk.”

Regarding Alameda’s investment in BlockFi, SBF said:

“A hundred million dollars? A few hundred million dollars? To be honest I don’t know. I wasn’t even looking at that number.”

Sam Bankman-Fried had this to say on whether he was worried about legal liability:

“Personally, I don’t think I am… that’s not what I’m focusing on. There will be a time and a place for me to think about myself and my future, but not now.”

Regarding the massive outflow of assets post-bankruptcy, SBF claimed that at the time his access to the systems was “cut off” and could only theorize about what had happened. He also added that he had no idea who hacked SBF FTX.

*Not investment advice.