Sam Bankman-Fried responds to FUDs on FTX
1) A huge thank you to everyone who has supported us–we're excited to keep climbing together.
— SBF (@SBF_FTX) November 6, 2022
And especially to those who stay level headed during crazy times. We deeply appreciate it.
2) A bunch of unfounded rumors have been circulating. You can see https://t.co/EBmqPhqCBl.
— SBF (@SBF_FTX) November 6, 2022
FTX keeps audited financials etc. And, though it slows us down sometimes on product, we're highly regulated.
3) We've already processed billions of dollars of deposits/withdrawals today; we'll keep going. (Taking up anti-spam checks to process more–sorry if you got those. We're hitting node rate capacity, will keep going.) Also tons of USD <> stablecoin conversions going on.
— SBF (@SBF_FTX) November 6, 2022
4) And in the end you should do what you want, and trade where you want. We're grateful to those who stay; and when this blows over we'll welcome everyone else back.
— SBF (@SBF_FTX) November 6, 2022
5) As always — a huge thank you to our supporters.
— SBF (@SBF_FTX) November 6, 2022
And to everyone else, as well, as long as they keep building and keep moving the industry forward.
We'll keep building too.
US authorities seize bitcoins stolen from Silk Road
In March 2017, BitcoinTalk user "Loaded", signed a message from an address with 40,000 Bitcoin, asking to do a 1 to 1 swap for "Bitcoin Unlimited" with @rogerkver
— BitMEX Research (@BitMEXResearch) November 7, 2022
It now appears these funds have been ceased by the US authortieshttps://t.co/01eDxJsvvnhttps://t.co/ZyXys8auKu pic.twitter.com/8PAchBo1II
The document alleges that “Loaded” stole over 50,000 Bitcoin from the darknet marketplace The Silk Road, by tricking “Silk Road’s withdrawal-processing system into releasing approximately 50,000 Bitcoin”
— BitMEX Research (@BitMEXResearch) November 7, 2022
The documents claim that "Loaded" had an underground floor safe, pictured below: pic.twitter.com/iGE7FCGZII
— BitMEX Research (@BitMEXResearch) November 7, 2022
The special IRS agent said:
— BitMEX Research (@BitMEXResearch) November 7, 2022
"I located the 50,491.06251844 BTC on devices in an underground floor safe; and on a single-board computer that was submerged under blankets in a popcorn tin stored in a bathroom closet"
Stealing Bitcoin from the Silk Road was apparently conducted by quickly submitting withdrawal requests in quick succession pic.twitter.com/c7hObqm7Yj
— BitMEX Research (@BitMEXResearch) November 7, 2022
Are Alameda and FTX on the brink of insolvency?
Sam Bankman-Fried was once admired as the king of crypto.
— Miles Deutscher (@milesdeutscher) November 7, 2022
Now Alameda and FTX are rumoured to be on the brink of insolvency.
🧵: Here's how it all went wrong for SBF and FTX. 👇
For a long time, SBF was idolised in the space.
— Miles Deutscher (@milesdeutscher) November 7, 2022
Famous for his:
• Arbitrage trading
• Founding FTX and Alameda
• Hugely successful investments like $SOL
Sam accrued an impressive estimated net worth of $10-14.5b at his peak.
In recent times, FTX has been extremely busy leading huge fundraising rounds for new projects.
— Miles Deutscher (@milesdeutscher) November 7, 2022
Aptos and Sui are the two most recent examples. pic.twitter.com/y6b4pvwiPT
Sam was invincible.
— Miles Deutscher (@milesdeutscher) November 7, 2022
Despite Luna causing chaos, he used the situation as leverage to continue an aggressive expansion plan.
• Bailed out BlockFi for $240m
• Bid for Voyager's assets
• Considered bailing out Celsius pic.twitter.com/EHGNzsuQs9
However, in the background there were some cracks starting to appear.
— Miles Deutscher (@milesdeutscher) November 7, 2022
Eyebrows started to raise when Alameda CEO Sam Trabucco suddenly resigned.https://t.co/RZ3n5gd2A2
Additionally, a month later FTX President Brett Harrison stepped down.https://t.co/YNM7TtarOo
— Miles Deutscher (@milesdeutscher) November 7, 2022
These resignations occurred just before it was revealed that FTX was facing some legal trouble in the form of a securities regulator probe. pic.twitter.com/x6em0KpwaS
— Miles Deutscher (@milesdeutscher) November 7, 2022
SBF has a clear interest in politics, evidenced by his involvement in the upcoming midterm elections, in which he has donated almost $50m.https://t.co/rzBTTytrTi
— Miles Deutscher (@milesdeutscher) November 7, 2022
This comes after his plan to donate $1b in the 2024 U.S. presidential election (which he later backtracked on).
— Miles Deutscher (@milesdeutscher) November 7, 2022
Clearly Sam has political interests at heart.
Although public sentiment was becoming more negative towards Sam, the DCCPA draft bill marked a real turning point for the public's perception.
— Miles Deutscher (@milesdeutscher) November 7, 2022
A draft of the bill was first leaked online.https://t.co/x6A03jBpWd
Sam has seemingly been supporting the bill.
— Miles Deutscher (@milesdeutscher) November 7, 2022
But despite Sam trying to play the "good guy" on Twitter, there were clear red flags throughout the bill which could pose significant threats to DeFi.https://t.co/5XyAuIaC1S
Multiple key industry figures have spoken out against the bill, most notably Bitboy, who is working on his own.https://t.co/w2N0tYO4lN
— Miles Deutscher (@milesdeutscher) November 7, 2022
Erik Voorhees famously quizzed SBF on his stance during a Bankless interview.
— Miles Deutscher (@milesdeutscher) November 7, 2022
This clip (which went viral) led to continued skepticism amongst the crypto community.https://t.co/oTcAzCe0iZ
The public damage for Sam was immense.
— Miles Deutscher (@milesdeutscher) November 7, 2022
Sentiment shifted as people realised his intentions may be different from what was first thought.
This shift in sentiment was the precursor for what was to come next, and a major contributor behind the severity of the recent FUD.
Concerns started to bubble on Wednesday when Alameda's balance sheet was leaked.
— Miles Deutscher (@milesdeutscher) November 7, 2022
It revealed that "the net equity in the Alameda business is actually FTX’s own centrally controlled and printed-out-of-thin-air token" – Cory Klippsten. pic.twitter.com/Jf9qi4JO4s
.@DylanLeClair_ did a great thread breaking down some of the concerns surrounding the balance sheet.https://t.co/4hTZlZtPNo
— Miles Deutscher (@milesdeutscher) November 7, 2022
One of the accounts that first called Celsius' collapse published a report titled "Is Alameda Insolvent?"
— Miles Deutscher (@milesdeutscher) November 7, 2022
The report labelled Alameda's situation as "precarious to say the least."https://t.co/seG6bLh1XU
More rumours started proliferating, and the FUD machine entered full force.
— Miles Deutscher (@milesdeutscher) November 7, 2022
Allegations of FTX's insolvency started circulating.https://t.co/ONFlX2MXaa
Then, we saw a MASSIVE $584m worth of $FTT transferred to Binance.https://t.co/yhswfBZiL2
— Miles Deutscher (@milesdeutscher) November 7, 2022
CZ confirmed that is was in fact Binance who executed the transfer.https://t.co/iVl3qUpaqj
— Miles Deutscher (@milesdeutscher) November 7, 2022
We got full confirmation that Binance was exiting its $FTT position yesterday, when CZ announced his decision "to liquidate any remaining FTT on our books."https://t.co/KuuH47sbM0
— Miles Deutscher (@milesdeutscher) November 7, 2022
CZ fired shots at Sam, stating that they were selling as a result of "learning from $LUNA".
— Miles Deutscher (@milesdeutscher) November 7, 2022
CZ indirectly referenced SBF's lobbying by claiming that he "won't support people who lobby against other industry players behind their backs."https://t.co/4hECOsWv5L
FTX's primary token $FTT dumped as a result, dropping 15% from its weekly highs.
— Miles Deutscher (@milesdeutscher) November 7, 2022
However, it has found strong support around the $22 region. pic.twitter.com/8drPDD8Wni
Caroline, the CEO of Alameda Research, was forced to issue a response to CZ's sale.
— Miles Deutscher (@milesdeutscher) November 7, 2022
In my opinion, this response felt desperate and was somewhat of a red flag.
We all know what happened last time someone tried to "steady" the ship.https://t.co/rHx7XEg7GC
$FTT isn't the only worry though, Alameda holds many more tokens which could be subject to downside pressure if the situation worsens.https://t.co/3qhNbO9bUP
— Miles Deutscher (@milesdeutscher) November 7, 2022
The FUD surrounding FTX has resulted in staggering outflows, as people rush to withdraw funds.
— Miles Deutscher (@milesdeutscher) November 7, 2022
The threat of a "bank run" was looming yesterday as some people were forced to wait 4 hours to process withdrawals.https://t.co/6WF6yT52NS
Sam recently issued a response stating that FTX is fine and assets are fine.https://t.co/WpXfPGktty
— Miles Deutscher (@milesdeutscher) November 7, 2022
However, I'm treating the situation with caution as when there's smoke, there's often fire.
— Miles Deutscher (@milesdeutscher) November 7, 2022
The chances of FTX being insolvent are quite slim, but why take chances in crypto when there's viable alternatives.
I hope you've found this thread interesting.
— Miles Deutscher (@milesdeutscher) November 7, 2022
Like/Retweet the first tweet below if you can. 💙 https://t.co/QbVENTpiuX
