Sam Bankman-Fried ‘Willing’ to Testify Before House Financial Services Committee

Sam Bankman-Fried, the former CEO of collapsed crypto exchange FTX, announced today that he is willing to testify before the House Financial Services Committee.

“I still do not have access to much of my data — professional or personal,” he tweeted. “So there is a limit to what I will be able to say, and I won’t be as helpful as I’d like. But as the committee still thinks it would be useful, I am willing to testify on the 13th.”

The announcement comes after a public back-and-forth between SBF and the House Committee’s chairwoman Maxine Waters. She had previously urged him to present more information into the exchange’s collapse as it “harmed over one million people,” she tweeted.

With speculation mounting over whether SBF would or wouldn’t testify, with the former FTX CEO saying he was “not sure” whether he would be ready to present these details following Waters’ initial request, the Chairwoman said that a subpoena demanding his testimony was “definitely on the table.”

Bankman-Fried, Waters Twitter chat

Chairwoman Waters first announced a hearing before the House Financial Services Committee on November 16, just five days after FTX announced that it was filing for bankruptcy.

The hearing was meant to unpack the broader consequences of FTX’s collapse. Alongside requests for SBF’s appearance, the House’s statement at that time indicated that it expects Binance to also participate in the hearing.

The discussion between the FTX and sister firm Alameda Research founder and the California representative went public last Friday, with Waters thanking SBF for his “candid” account of the exchange’s collapse.

“We appreciate that you’ve been candid in your discussions about what happened at FTX,” she said. “Your willingness to talk to the public will help the company’s customers, investors, and others.”

She took a much firmer tone once SBF suggested that he wasn’t sure he would be able to attend until he had “finished learning and reviewing what happened.”

FTX’s collapse has been one for the records, involving celebrities, professional sports teams, and billions of dollars in user funds.

The firm’s unraveling began in November when Binance CEO said that the firm would begin selling its FTX Token (FTT) holdings due to unspecified “revelations.” The move spooked the market, with withdrawals from FTX hitting $1.2 billion in just 24 hours.

Shortly after, Binance announced it was pursuing an acquisition of FTX.

A day later, the firm backed out of the deal, with Binance reporting that its “hope was to be able to support FTX’s customers to provide liquidity, but the issues are beyond our control or ability to help.”