Venture Capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya on SBF and FTX 

• Social Capital’s founder Chamath Palihapitiya talked about FTX and SBF in a podcast.
• FTX collapse has affected the crypto market significantly.
• The billionaire argues FTX’s collapse is due to SBF’s mistakes.

All in “All-In”

Founder and CEO of Social Capital investment company, and Venture Capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya, expressed his views on the former CEO and founder of now-bust crypto exchange FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried. FTX was one of the largest crypto exchanges in the world.

Billionaire and Venture Capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya stated in an episode of the podcast “All-In” on December 3, that “He took customer funds and all of this money, he made tens of millions of dollars of political donations, he wrapped himself in this blanket of a progressive, left-leaning cause called ‘effective altruism’ and all of the mainstream media fell for it and embraced him, as well as some politicians, because it met everything that they themselves also bought into.”

Mr. Chamath is also the co-host of the technology podcast. The 46-year old billionaire criticized SBF for misleading the media with his “apology tour.” According to news reports, he pointed out that very little squeeze was felt by FTX either from government regulators or media. SBF was involved as a “significant donor” and has spent $40 million in political campaigns.

In an interview conducted by Vox, held on November 16, soon after SBF’s crypto empire FTX crashed, he shifted his role from being a supporter to criticizing regulators. SBF was actively funding political campaigns – lobbying and charitable donations. But now, he directly abused regulators. 

As the sources suggest, the “SPAC King” Palihapitiya was once regarded as the Jim Cramer of SPACs (Special purpose acquisition companies). Messaging app Slack was funded by Social Capital, almost $42.8 million and $172.7 million in 2014 and 2015 respectively. 

Mr. Chamath called the FTX collapse a “cataclysmic event”, as it proved to be destructive for the entire crypto industry, dropping the total cryptocurrency market capitalization to $843.23 billion, about 66% less from the $2.82 trillion in November last year.   

The FTX crash had incurred a loss of $1 billion affecting almost 1 million investors. Bitcoin’s (BTC) value slumped to $16,965.35, almost 75.34% from $68,789.63 in November last year. Further, the investment mogul Mark Mobius, predicted that BTC may fall by 40% to $10,000 levels in the upcoming months. 

Mr. Chamath called FTX a “sophisticated con,” created by SBF which led to its downfall. As stated in the New York DealBook Summit, Fried said that he “didn’t knowingly commingle” FTX customer funds with its trading desk, Alameda Research. Also, he remarked, “I did not even try to commit fraud on anyone.”

Nancy J. Allen is a crypto enthusiast and believes that cryptocurrencies inspire people to be their own banks and step aside from traditional monetary exchange systems. She is also intrigued by blockchain technology and its functioning.

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