The Block CEO steps down after failing to disclose publication was funded by SBF

Mike McCaffrey announces he is stepping down as The Block CEO. In a Twitter thread, he admits secretly receiving $27 million in investments from the infamous Sam Bankman-Fried.

McCaffrey revealed that the publication he led as a CEO since 2020 had received two major investments from SBF. In 2021, a $12 million tranche came, and in early 2022, an additional $15 million was received, according to a Tweet by McCaffrey:

2/ In early 2021, The Block was in a precarious place, and I was evaluating whether to sell, merge or restructure. The only option that materialized was to restructure when I was able to obtain a $12 million loan for my holding company from SBF in Feb of 2021.
— Mike McCaffrey (@McCaffrMike) December 9, 2022

The now-former CEO also admitted that no one in the crypto outlet knew about the source of funding:

“I didn’t disclose the loan to anyone. Absolutely no one at The Block knew about the financial arrangement between my holding company and SBF.”
Mike McCaffrey, former CEO at The Block

The founder of The Block, Mike Dudas, claimed that the situation was ‘the worst personal betrayal of his entire life’.

it’s business betrayal
you are all going to learn about it shortly
and i was given at most hours to process it
devastated beyond belief
— Mike Dudas (⛳️,🏆) (@mdudas) December 9, 2022

In a separate comment, Dudas hinted that he was bought out by the ‘wealthy and loaned’ McCaffrey’s family in 2021:

“My understanding was that Mike McCaffrey’s family was wealthy and loaned him money to buy out me and the VCs so the team could assume full independent ownership,” The Block Founder @mdudas said to TechCrunch.
— Jacquelyn Melinek (@jacqmelinek) December 9, 2022

In a tweet that is now deleted, The Block’s editor-at-large Frank Chaparro mocked McCaffrey with the F-word.

The Block CEO steps down after failing to disclose publication was funded by SBF - 1

The Block was founded in 2018 as a crypto news outlet. According to an interview given by McCaffrey to Fortune, by 2019, it generated several million in revenue. Moreover, the outlet raised over $4 million from VCs, including Greycroft, Pantera, BlockTower Capital, and Bloomberg Beta.

In 2020, The Block bought out its non-employee shareholders, including its investors and co-founders. McCaffrey became the new CEO of the outlet, while Dudas remained the board member. A person familiar with the matter assured Crypto.news that the CEO had no influence on the editorial team.

As of now, Dudas claims to have nothing to do with The Block management:

Source: https://crypto.news/the-block-ceo-steps-down-after-failing-to-disclose-publication-was-funded-by-sbf/