Bankman-Fried Apologizes to FTX Staff, Particulars Quantity of Leverage in Inner Letter

FTX founder and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried “froze up within the face of stress” as his firm collapsed, he wrote in a brand new letter despatched to staff of the corporate he as soon as helmed.

Within the letter, shared internally in FTX’s firm Slack and obtained by CoinDesk, Bankman-Fried mentioned he felt “deeply sorry about what occurred” and what that meant for the corporate’s staff. He didn’t deal with allegations that FTX diverted buyer and company funds to prop up Bankman-Fried’s Alameda Analysis, revelations that Alameda had an exemption from FTX’s regular liquidation course of or statements that Alameda had loaned funds to FTX officers together with himself.

“I did not imply for any of this to occur, and I might give something to have the ability to return and do issues over once more. You have been my household,” he mentioned. “I’ve misplaced that, and our outdated house is an empty warehouse of displays. Once I flip round, there is no one left to speak to.”

“I froze up within the face of stress and leaks and the Binance [letter of intent to purchase FTX] and mentioned nothing,” he mentioned.

Bankman-Fried stepped down as CEO of FTX on Nov. 11, proper earlier than his firm filed for chapter. He’s not a present worker of the corporate, new CEO John Ray III has mentioned after Bankman-Fried tweeted a number of threads and spoke to a reporter in regards to the firm. Tuesday’s letter to FTX staff was posted by a present worker, as Bankman-Fried not has entry to the corporate Slack.

Based on Bankman-Fried, FTX had round $60 billion in collateral and $2 billion in liabilities this spring, however a market crash meant the collateral’s worth was halved.

The “drying up” of credit score within the trade additional meant FTX’s collateral was price round $25 billion, although his liabilities measurement jumped to $8 billion.

One other crash in November “led to a different roughly 50% discount within the worth of collateral over a really brief time frame,” which he valued at $17 billion on the time.

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The financial institution run, attributable to what Bankman-Fried termed “assaults” in November, diminished one other $8 billion in collateral, he mentioned.

“As we frantically put every thing collectively, it grew to become clear that the place was bigger than its show on admin/customers, due to outdated fiat deposits earlier than FTX had financial institution accounts,” he mentioned. “I didn’t understand the total extent of the margin place, nor did I understand the magnitude of the danger posed by a hyper-correlated crash.”

Learn extra: Legal professionals Element the ‘Abrupt and Tough’ Collapse of FTX in First Chapter Listening to

Bankman-Fried “didn’t understand the total extent of the margin place” or the danger {that a} correlated crash meant, he mentioned.

“The loans and secondary gross sales have been usually used to reinvest within the enterprise – together with shopping for out Binance – and never for big quantities of private consumption,” he mentioned.

Bankman-Fried didn’t deal with considerations that buyer funds have been despatched from FTX to Alameda, which have been raised anew through the firm’s first chapter listening to earlier Tuesday.

James Bromley of Sullivan & Cromwell, who offered FTX’s present state of affairs on the chapter listening to in Delaware, mentioned that “substantial funds seem to have been transferred” to Alameda from different corporations inside the FTX umbrella, a few of which have been invested in crypto and expertise ventures.

“There have been additionally substantial quantities of cash that have been spent on issues that weren’t associated to the enterprise. As an illustration, one of many U.S. debtors is an entity that’s operated that bought nearly $300 million price of actual property within the Bahamas,” Bromley mentioned. “Primarily based on preliminary investigations, most of these actual property purchases [were] associated to houses and trip properties that have been utilized by senior executives.”

Nonetheless, the doc supplies perception to Bankman-Fried’s pondering, together with his obvious perception that he mustn’t have filed for Chapter 11 chapter, which he first instructed a Vox reporter final week.

FTX filed for chapter on account of “an excessive quantity of coordinated stress,” which Bankman-Fried mentioned he agreed to “reluctantly.”

“Possibly there may be nonetheless an opportunity to save lots of the corporate,” he mentioned within the letter Tuesday. “I consider that there are billions of {dollars} of real curiosity from new traders that might go to creating prospects entire. However I can not promise you that something will occur, as a result of it isn’t my alternative.”

Danny Nelson contributed reporting.

CORRECTION (Nov. 22 22:30 UTC): The FTX chapter listening to was held Tuesday.