Shock Statements From FTX Founder: Bitcoins Went To That Stock Exchange!

On Tuesday, Sam Bankman-Fried’s (SBF) first full-length interview since the FTX bankruptcy was posted on YouTube by journalist Tiffany Fong. Bankman-Fried made remarkable statements in the interview. He even mentioned the FTX hacker. Here are the details…

FTX CEO responds to ‘backdoor’ allegations

The former CEO offered his perspective on the series of allegations made against him since the bankruptcy and the plight of FTX US customers. Wong questioned SBF regarding previous allegations that the CEO had altered FTX’s financial records using a “backdoor” that allowed to execute commands without warning others. This claim was repeated many times by Reuters in the days after FTX went bankrupt. He added that the backdoor was used to transfer client funds to FTX’s sister trading desk, Alameda Research.

“I certainly wasn’t building a ‘backdoor’ in the system,” the SBF replied during the interview. “I don’t know exactly what they mean,” he added. As we reported on Kriptokoin.com, Reuters claimed on November 15 that the back door was made by FTX’s head of engineering, Gary Wang. Allegedly, only Wang, the SBF, and his innermost circle knew about the movement of funds.

“FTT is not worthless”

Regarding FTT, SBF said it does not believe the exchange’s token is worthless. FTT’s buy + burn mechanism pointed to fee cuts and cash flow. “I think its value is more economically supported than the average token,” he said. FTT started November at just over $20. However, it is now trading at $1.31 at the time of writing. Its price plummeted when Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao threatened to sell $500 million worth of tokens on the open market.

SBF denied allegations that the token crashed due to margin calls on Alameda and FTX (where FTT is collateral) or the asset’s lack of liquidity. Instead, he said, it was the loss of confidence in the stock market that led to the big sale.

SBF’s bankruptcy regret

When FTX filed for bankruptcy on November 11, hundreds of affiliates joined it, including both Alameda Research and FTX US. Just a day earlier, Bankman-Fried had claimed that assets in FTX US were “financially unaffected” by the fallout. The next day, many were confused and angry with him. Bankman-Fried said, “You can blame me for presenting this document. I should have just said no. “The right thing to do was not to file for bankruptcy,” he said. He also added that “I would give anything” to rescind that decision.

Thoughts on the FTX hacker

He also said he narrowed down who might be behind the $650 million suspected “hack” on the night of Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing. “I narrowed down the suspects to eight,” Bankman-Fried said. I don’t know which one it is,” he said. He suggested that the suspect was either a former FTX employee or someone who installed malware on a former employee’s computer.

Regarding how FTX fell into the mess it currently finds itself in, Bankman-Fried told Fang that the collapse of its exchange’s token, FTT, did not directly lead to a bank run because of any margin calls. But he stated that they had problems due to a large sale caused by fear. Faced with a liquidity crisis and forced to admit that the exchange was not holding any one-on-one client funds, FTX froze withdrawals for all clients on Nov.

Meanwhile, the hacker continues to move the coins he stole from FTX. Experts found that $4.1 million of 255 BTC went to OKX. Also, the hacker deposited the stolen funds into CoinMixer. The first CoinMixer investment came after the hacker used the Rhine Bridge. As it is known, he used the Rhine Bridge to convert Ethereums to Bitcoin. In the last case, 7 million dollars of ETH remained in the hacker’s wallet. Expert name ZackXBT said it is possible that the hacker will transfer the funds to OKX after withdrawing funds from CoinMixer.

Why Bahamas?

Last week, FTX announced that Bahamian “regulators” had ordered it to enable withdrawals for Bahamian citizens. The Bahamian SEC later denied that regulators had made such a request. In reality, the SBF admitted to Fong that it prioritized the Bahamian retreats. Because that’s where I’m at right now, he said.