FTX downfall was a turning point for citizen journalism: Coinbase CEO

Coinbase CEO and co-founder Brian Armstrong have applauded the work of citizen journalists and blockchain analysts surrounding the unfolding FTX crisis and its former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried.

In a Nov. 16 tweet that has been retweeted over 9,000 times at the time of writing, Armstrong suggested that it has been regular citizens, rather than traditional media that has uncovered many of the developments associated with the liquidity crunch and subsequent bankruptcy filing of FTX.

Commenting on a recent New York Times “puff piece,” Armstrong said it: “Feels like a turning point for citizen journalism and loss of trust in MSM” — referring to mainstream media.

Twitter has broken just about every piece of this FTX story using blockchain analytics, while NYT is writing puff pieces on a criminal.
Feels like a turning point for citizen journalism and loss of trust in MSM.
— Brian Armstrong (@brian_armstrong) November 16, 2022

Crypto Twitter has also been highly critical of the article, with Polygon Studios CEO Ryan Wyatt tweeting at the author of the article that Bankman-Fried had “committed significant crimes” and it was “a disservice to all of those impacted.”

Elon Musk has tweeted about the rise of citizen journalism on Twitter multiple times since acquiring the social media network in October.

Mainstream media will still thrive, but increased competition from citizens will cause them to be more accurate, as their oligopoly on information is disrupted
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 11, 2022

As an example of the rise of blockchain analysis and citizen journalism, on Nov. 5 blockchain tracker Whale Alert shared that just under 23 million FTX Token (FTT), representing approximately 17% of the circulating supply and valued at $584.8 million at the time, had been moved onto Binance.

This event turned out to be one of the first signs of FTX’s liquidity crises, a story that was not picked up by the NYT until Nov. 8.

Blockchain investigators were also the first to break the news of the FTX hack, with the movements of funds to different wallets being closely tracked by Twitter users who deduced it was a hack hours before FTX’s official announcement.

Twitter Spaces has also become home to The Roundtable Show, a gathering of crypto community members hosted by Mario Nawfal which has been providing live updates and commentary on the FTX saga as it develops, with figures such as Elon Musk, BankToTheFuture CEO Simon Dixon and internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom, who have joined with 891,499 people tuning in.

While Twitter has often been instrumental in breaking news and analysis on the FTX saga, it also has harbored its fair share of conspiracy theories and outright false information.

Bankman-Fried’s recent cryptic Twitter thread caused wildfire rumors on the platform that he was using the newly posted tweets to delete older, possibly incriminating ones, a theory that was later debunked.

Twitter users also pointed to Bankman-Fried’s private jet leaving The Bahamas for Argentina on Nov. 12 and speculated he was fleeing there, which he denied, and a source later told Cointelegraph that Bankman-Fried was under supervision by Bahamian authorities.