Bankman-Fried points mea culpa in letter to former FTX workers

Sam Bankman-Fried has instructed former FTX workers that extreme borrowing by his personal buying and selling agency Alameda Analysis was accountable for FTX’s demise, insisting he was unaware of the margin positions taken by the merchants.

In a letter to former workers, the FTX founder wrote that he “didn’t realise the complete extent of the margin place, nor did I realise the magnitude of the danger posed by a hyper-correlated crash”.

FTX sometimes allowed shoppers to borrow cash to be able to amp up their bets on cryptocurrencies. However that follow allowed Alameda to take extra-large positions, which Bankman-Fried claimed he failed to watch.

In accordance with the letter, seen by the Monetary Instances, Alameda entered the crypto crash this spring having borrowed $2bn from FTX, which was backed by what it claimed was $60bn in collateral. However by the point Bankman-Fried’s cryptocurrency empire was collapsing, that borrowing had risen to $8bn and was backed by belongings valued at solely $9bn.

“I deeply remorse my oversight failure . . . I misplaced observe of an important issues within the commotion of firm progress,” Bankman-Fried wrote.

The letter despatched to workers of his corporations offers probably the most detailed account but by Bankman-Fried for a way FTX collapsed from one of many best-known names in digital belongings into chapter 11 in lower than two weeks.

Earlier on Tuesday, legal professionals for FTX’s new managers lambasted Bankman-Fried’s administration of the crypto conglomerate, telling a US chapter courtroom in Delaware that the previous billionaire ran his firm as a “private fiefdom” and that the group spent “substantial quantities of cash” on gadgets unrelated to the enterprise akin to trip houses within the Bahamas. Earlier chapter filings have pointed to “misuse of buyer funds”.

Bankman-Fried mentioned the crash in token costs and the “drying up” of credit score in digital asset markets after the collapse of stablecoin Terra this spring eroded Alameda’s collateral from roughly $60bn to $25bn. 

The place worsened sharply in November attributable to a “hyper-correlated crash . . . over a really brief time frame”, an obvious allusion to the autumn within the worth of FTX’s personal crypto token FTT earlier this month after CoinDesk, a information service that covers digital currencies, revealed the central position it performed in Alameda’s stability sheet. Rival crypto change Binance responded to the report by saying plans to promote its inventory of the coin.

The dimensions of the issue was amplified as a result of Alameda held $8bn in buyer funds belonging to FTX. Bankman-Fried has claimed Alameda held these FTX buyer funds as a result of it had acquired money from them earlier than the change had its personal checking account. A number of FTX shoppers have instructed the FT that they wired cash to Alameda that was later set for use on the change.

“As we frantically put all the pieces collectively, it turned clear that the place was bigger than its show on admin/customers, due to outdated [cash] deposits earlier than FTX had financial institution accounts,” Bankman-Fried mentioned.

Alameda’s belongings included massive investments in enterprise capital and crypto tokens that might not shortly be became money.

Bankman-Fried mentioned he regrets placing your entire crypto group into Chapter 11 chapter, “even entities that had been solvent”, and apologised to prospects and his former employees.

“You had been my household,” he wrote. “I’ve misplaced that, and our outdated house is an empty warehouse of displays. After I flip round, there’s nobody left to speak to.”