FTX/Sam Bankman-Fried

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Discussion

bitchstewie

Original Poster:

50,810 posts

209 months

Saturday 12th November 2022
quotequote all
Maybe a bit niche but it's been on the front page of the BBC.

From $16B to $3 net worth in around a week and a lot of very interesting questions being asked about the running of the company.

FTX founder's $16bn fortune wiped out as crypto exchange files for bankruptcy

Gecko1978

9,603 posts

156 months

Saturday 12th November 2022
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From what I gather they pumped value of their native coin and used customer assets to fill holes in BS. I suspect he is going to gaol.

mids

1,505 posts

257 months

Saturday 12th November 2022
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Every time I read an update it gets worse. From Reuters this morning.... "At least $1 billion of client funds missing"

https://twitter.com/Reuters/status/159132621729844...

cc3

2,787 posts

115 months

Saturday 12th November 2022
quotequote all
Hardly a surprise if you invest in this type of asset class you have got to expect to lose your shirt. Even in areas with better regulation we see events of clients being defrauded so no surprise in the Wild West crypto it’s going to be as bad or worse

FourWheelDrift

88,382 posts

283 months

Saturday 12th November 2022
quotequote all
Reports suggesting he's flown to Argentina - https://twitter.com/WallStreetSilv/status/15913200...


Hardly surprising, if you look at all the Crypto sponsors of F1 teams every single one of them would have made no money on an investment. - https://twitter.com/FormulaNetflix/status/15905091...


SWoll

18,207 posts

257 months

Saturday 12th November 2022
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Crypto is a huge scam shocker..

HiAsAKite

2,345 posts

246 months

Saturday 12th November 2022
quotequote all
FourWheelDrift said:
Reports suggesting he's flown to Argentina - https://twitter.com/WallStreetSilv/status/15913200...


Hardly surprising, if you look at all the Crypto sponsors of F1 teams every single one of them would have made no money on an investment. - https://twitter.com/FormulaNetflix/status/15905091...
What is hilarious is the comparison at the end of the twitter thread with "if you invested in a 50 euro max verstappen branded redbull can... you'd be quids in at 400euro now..

bitchstewie

Original Poster:

50,810 posts

209 months

Saturday 12th November 2022
quotequote all
cc3 said:
Hardly a surprise if you invest in this type of asset class you have got to expect to lose your shirt. Even in areas with better regulation we see events of clients being defrauded so no surprise in the Wild West crypto it’s going to be as bad or worse
I put £500 in Bitcoin as a literal punt as it's money I'm quite prepared and "happy" to lose as part of my investments.

Honestly it scares the st out of me the kind of amounts people seem to be into crypto for and how an event like this could impact them.

Royal Jelly

3,674 posts

197 months

Saturday 12th November 2022
quotequote all
bhstewie said:
I put £500 in Bitcoin as a literal punt as it's money I'm quite prepared and "happy" to lose as part of my investments.

Honestly it scares the st out of me the kind of amounts people seem to be into crypto for and how an event like this could impact them.
Indeed. No sympathy for them, though. Anyone in crypto nowadays has had no end of folks telling them it’s liable to come crumbling around them over the last few years. They can’t say they weren’t warned.

It’s peaks have been nothing more than a combination of cheap money, free money and greater fool theory.


FourWheelDrift

88,382 posts

283 months

Saturday 12th November 2022
quotequote all
Condi said:
Totally out their depth doesn't even being to describe it.
CEO of Alameda Research - https://twitter.com/gurgavin/status/15909266778778...

https://www.efinancialcareers.com/news/2022/11/car...

Condi

17,089 posts

170 months

Saturday 12th November 2022
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FourWheelDrift said:
Yep....

article said:
Before joining Alameda as a trader in March 2018, Ellison spent 19 months as a junior trader at Jane Street after graduating from Stanford University with a bachelor's degree in mathematics in 2016.

She was persuaded to join Alameda by SBF, who also previously worked for Jane Street. When she quit Jane Street, Ellison said she felt bad for staying such a short amount of time. However, this feeling quickly dissipated when she arrived at Alameda and discovered that she had "kind of more trading experience than a lot of Alameda traders," anyway.


By all accounts she was romantically involved with SBF too.

But hey, crypto enthusiasts don't want the regulation which would prevent things like this, and if they're prepared to deposit money with such firms then we should have no sympathy when the inevitable happens.

EddieSteadyGo

11,727 posts

202 months

Saturday 12th November 2022
quotequote all
Condi said:
...
But hey, crypto enthusiasts don't want the regulation which would prevent things like this...
Is this true? The fundamental cause looks to be financial criminality i.e. there are existing laws and regulations which already prohibit these type of abuses, which it appears Sam Bankman-Fried violated.

bloomen

6,857 posts

158 months

Saturday 12th November 2022
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Everything in 'crypto' that arrived after early 2009 is guaranteed ste basically.

Incredible how few competent adults have gotten involved after all this time and all these balls ups, and how willing potentially competent adults were to throw money at them.

I thought after the ICO bubble in 2017 it couldn't get any more risible but it turns out that was only a warm up.

bitchstewie

Original Poster:

50,810 posts

209 months

Saturday 12th November 2022
quotequote all
Fascinating article linked from here.

https://twitter.com/dollarsanddata/status/15914360...

Condi

17,089 posts

170 months

Saturday 12th November 2022
quotequote all
EddieSteadyGo said:
Is this true? The fundamental cause looks to be financial criminality i.e. there are existing laws and regulations which already prohibit these type of abuses, which it appears Sam Bankman-Fried violated.
Not as far as I'm aware - financial regulations in general only cover regulated securities, and there is obviously common law covering theft, but there is nothing stopping him doing what he was doing - creating his own token and using that as a debt raising instrument without any cover for customer deposits.

Unless you can point to any laws and regulations which cover crypto markets? A large part of the attraction is that you can do things in crypto-world which you can't in the traditional financial system.

FourWheelDrift

88,382 posts

283 months

Saturday 12th November 2022
quotequote all
bhstewie said:
Fascinating article linked from here.

https://twitter.com/dollarsanddata/status/15914360...
Published just 51 days ago.

EddieSteadyGo

11,727 posts

202 months

Saturday 12th November 2022
quotequote all
Condi said:
Not as far as I'm aware - financial regulations in general only cover regulated securities, and there is obviously common law covering theft, but there is nothing stopping him doing what he was doing - creating his own token and using that as a debt raising instrument without any cover for customer deposits.

Unless you can point to any laws and regulations which cover crypto markets? A large part of the attraction is that you can do things in crypto-world which you can't in the traditional financial system.
If he was misappropriating customer's money in violation of their stated terms of service (which it seems they were certainly doing) then that I suppose could be only a civil matter. But in general there are many financial regulations they would need to comply with, including basic rules like "KYC" and anti-money laundering policies, particularly for their US business (FTX.US). And I assume the DoJ believe criminal behaviour is likely to have occurred as it is reported they have launched an investigation.

https://fortune.com/crypto/2022/11/10/ftx-sam-bank...

FourWheelDrift

88,382 posts

283 months

Saturday 12th November 2022
quotequote all
Madoff Jnr.

3 days ago - "Dr Doom' economist Nouriel Roubini suggests FTX's rescue deal shows how crypto is a Ponzi scheme: 'Who will bail out Binance?"

https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencie...


bitchstewie

Original Poster:

50,810 posts

209 months

Saturday 12th November 2022
quotequote all
Fascinating story even if only half the allegations turn out to be true.

Reuters reporting "back doors" in FTX accounts allowing SBF access.

FTX coincidentally gets "hacked".

Mutterings of SBF's private jet en-route to Argentina.

There's definitely going to be a movie made about this.

cc3

2,787 posts

115 months

Saturday 12th November 2022
quotequote all
Condi said:
EddieSteadyGo said:
Is this true? The fundamental cause looks to be financial criminality i.e. there are existing laws and regulations which already prohibit these type of abuses, which it appears Sam Bankman-Fried violated.
Not as far as I'm aware - financial regulations in general only cover regulated securities, and there is obviously common law covering theft, but there is nothing stopping him doing what he was doing - creating his own token and using that as a debt raising instrument without any cover for customer deposits.

Unless you can point to any laws and regulations which cover crypto markets? A large part of the attraction is that you can do things in crypto-world which you can't in the traditional financial system.


U.S. authorities have very long arms if they want to find a way to lock him up they will.