FTX Wasn’t a Ponzi Scheme but a Real Business: Said American Author

• Michael Lewis, American author and financial journalist, said FTX wasn’t a Ponzi scheme and had “great real business.”
• SBF was planning to pay Donald Trump $5 billion to not run for president.
• Lewis said that FTX’s fall was due to a financial collapse.

Bankrupt crypto exchange FTX wasn’t a Ponzi scheme and had great real business, according to best-selling American author Michael Lewis. In an interview with CBS News, Lewis shared his stories of meeting FTX’s former CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried, and claimed that people were “misreading him.”

Lewis stated that FTX’s fall was a “financial collapse” and said, “If no one had ever cast aspersions on the business, if there hadn’t been a run on customer deposits, they’d still be sitting there making tons of money.”

Sam Bankman-Fried allegedly gave multi-million dollars to support Republican candidates and was one of Joe Biden’s biggest donors. Moreover, he allegedly cornered over $100 million in customer funds for political reasons.

In the interview, Lewis stated that SBF was considering paying Donald Trump $5 billion not to run for president. The reason why SBF didn’t go through with this, according to Lewis, was because “when FTX blew up, he didn’t have $5 billion anymore.”

Lewis said:

Sam’s thinking, “We could pay Donald Trump not to run for president. How much would it take?” The number that was kicking around when I was talking to Sam about this was $5 billion. Sam was not sure that number came directly from Trump.

The interview sparked much debate in the crypto community, and many people weren’t happy with it. Ryan Selkis, the founder of Messari, a crypto research and data company, said, “The Michael Lewis interview is infuriating. SBF was a scumbag, and now we need to hear about his ‘tragic call.’ Crypto lawyer John Deaton called the interview “insane reporting.”

After the fall of FTX and the arrest of SBF, Lewis mentioned that the SBF brought a lot of hope to people and that “there’s still a Sam Bankman-Fried shaped hole in the world that now needs filling.”