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.
And especially to those who stay level headed during crazy times. We deeply appreciate it.
— SBF (@SBF_FTX) November 6, 2022
2) A bunch of unfounded rumors have been circulating. You can see https://t.co/EBmqPhqCBl.
FTX keeps audited financials etc. And, though it slows us down sometimes on product, we're highly regulated.
— SBF (@SBF_FTX) November 6, 2022
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.
And to everyone else, as well, as long as they keep building and keep moving the industry forward.
We'll keep building too.
— SBF (@SBF_FTX) November 6, 2022
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
It now appears these funds have been ceased by the US authortieshttps://t.co/01eDxJsvvnhttps://t.co/ZyXys8auKu pic.twitter.com/8PAchBo1II
— BitMEX Research (@BitMEXResearch) November 7, 2022
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:
"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"
— BitMEX Research (@BitMEXResearch) November 7, 2022
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.
Now Alameda and FTX are rumoured to be on the brink of insolvency.
🧵: Here's how it all went wrong for SBF and FTX. 👇
— Miles Deutscher (@milesdeutscher) November 7, 2022
For a long time, SBF was idolised in the space.
Famous for his:
• Arbitrage trading
• Founding FTX and Alameda
• Hugely successful investments like $SOLSam accrued an impressive estimated net worth of $10-14.5b at his peak.
— Miles Deutscher (@milesdeutscher) November 7, 2022
In recent times, FTX has been extremely busy leading huge fundraising rounds for new projects.
Aptos and Sui are the two most recent examples. pic.twitter.com/y6b4pvwiPT
— Miles Deutscher (@milesdeutscher) November 7, 2022
Sam was invincible.
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— Miles Deutscher (@milesdeutscher) November 7, 2022
However, in the background there were some cracks starting to appear.
Eyebrows started to raise when Alameda CEO Sam Trabucco suddenly resigned.https://t.co/RZ3n5gd2A2
— Miles Deutscher (@milesdeutscher) November 7, 2022
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).
Clearly Sam has political interests at heart.
— Miles Deutscher (@milesdeutscher) November 7, 2022
Although public sentiment was becoming more negative towards Sam, the DCCPA draft bill marked a real turning point for the public's perception.
A draft of the bill was first leaked online.https://t.co/x6A03jBpWd
— Miles Deutscher (@milesdeutscher) November 7, 2022
Sam has seemingly been supporting the bill.
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
— Miles Deutscher (@milesdeutscher) November 7, 2022
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.
This clip (which went viral) led to continued skepticism amongst the crypto community.https://t.co/oTcAzCe0iZ
— Miles Deutscher (@milesdeutscher) November 7, 2022
The public damage for Sam was immense.
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.
— Miles Deutscher (@milesdeutscher) November 7, 2022
Concerns started to bubble on Wednesday when Alameda's balance sheet was leaked.
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
— Miles Deutscher (@milesdeutscher) November 7, 2022
.@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?"
The report labelled Alameda's situation as "precarious to say the least."https://t.co/seG6bLh1XU
— Miles Deutscher (@milesdeutscher) November 7, 2022
More rumours started proliferating, and the FUD machine entered full force.
Allegations of FTX's insolvency started circulating.https://t.co/ONFlX2MXaa
— Miles Deutscher (@milesdeutscher) November 7, 2022
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".
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
— Miles Deutscher (@milesdeutscher) November 7, 2022
FTX's primary token $FTT dumped as a result, dropping 15% from its weekly highs.
However, it has found strong support around the $22 region. pic.twitter.com/8drPDD8Wni
— Miles Deutscher (@milesdeutscher) November 7, 2022
Caroline, the CEO of Alameda Research, was forced to issue a response to CZ's sale.
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
— Miles Deutscher (@milesdeutscher) November 7, 2022
$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.
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
— Miles Deutscher (@milesdeutscher) November 7, 2022
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.
The chances of FTX being insolvent are quite slim, but why take chances in crypto when there's viable alternatives.
— Miles Deutscher (@milesdeutscher) November 7, 2022
I hope you've found this thread interesting.
Like/Retweet the first tweet below if you can. 💙 https://t.co/QbVENTpiuX
— Miles Deutscher (@milesdeutscher) November 7, 2022
Source: https://www.cryptopolitan.com/best-twitter-threads-of-the-day-november-7th/