Insiders at could-be acquired crypto exchange FTX are sharing perspectives on Twitter that paint a bleak picture of the firm’s final throes. As the market questioned the solvency of Sam Bankman-Fried’s top exchange, employees were seemingly left in the dark.
FTX staff and top traders reveal executives failed to communicate during a tumultuous week that began when Binance chief Changpeng Zhao (CZ) decided to liquidate remaining FTX tokens (FTT) from its books — and ended with Binance announcing it intended to buy FTX, pending due diligence.
Instead, FTX’s inner circle reassured the wider public of FTX’s balance sheet. “FTX is fine. Assets are fine,” Bankman-Fried said in a now-deleted tweet as insolvency fears began to spread.
The crypto exchange’s head of institutional sales Zane Tackett stated it “operate[s] on a 100% reserve basis so there’s no need to be worried about an influx in withdrawals.” He also admitted that “FTT is [his] largest holding.”
FTX ‘community partner’ Benson Sun was confident of the firm’s positioning a mere two days ago, stating, “Tether processed billions of redemptions from May to June, and no one questioned Tether’s credibility anymore. So will FTX this time.”
Several employees have deleted tweets that expressed confidence in FTX — some have chosen to take their accounts private.
Most of FTX’s legal and compliance staff have reportedly quit in the past 24 hours, following news of Binance’s proposed acquisition.
FTX execs tweet hopes, prayers, best wishes
Brett Harrison, the president of FTX.US until he stepped down less than two months ago, seemed to not have any idea that there was trouble on the horizon. “I was surprised and saddened by today’s news,” he wrote.
Sam Trabucco, previous co-chief at Alameda, sent “much love to everyone,” and laughed off a suggestion that he was set to join Binance.
Read more: We searched for FTX’s ether — and we have questions
Meanwhile, Sam Bankman-Fried has deleted tweets and gone off-grid. The curly-haired former billionaire sent out his last tweet less than 24-hours ago, when he announced Binance’s acquisition and assistance with a “liquidity crunch.” However, he’s also been busy deleting earlier posts wherein he assured the public that FTX was doing a-okay — all the while chasing Wall Street and Silicon Valley execs for a $1 billion bailout.
Some Twitter users are pointing out FTX’s questionable Twitter activity. Tweets liked by FTX’s official account during the crisis share confidence in the firm’s liquidity.
“I would be very surprised if FTX were in a position where FTT [was] losing value or [where] users withdrawing funds would leave them insolvent,” one post liked by FTX assured.
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Source: https://protos.com/panic-and-resignations-reign-over-ftxs-final-days/