- Sam Bankman-Fried admitted to having “fucked up” in a tweet thread yesterday
- The FTX founder and CEO apologized for two errors, adding that he “should have done better”
- Bankman-Fried did not address the usage of customer funds to prop up Alameda Research
FTX co-founder and CEO Sam Bankman-Fried took to Twitter yesterday to apologize for what he perceived as two errors that led to the collapse of his multi-billion-dollar FTX empire. Bankman-Fried has been experiencing what the likes of Alex Mashinsky and Do Kwon have gone through this year as he faced a continued barrage of complaints over his handling of user funds, with his apology cutting no ice whatsoever.
Bankman-Fried: “I Fucked Up Twice”
Bankman-Fried’s 22-tweet thread started with an apology and an admission that he “should have done better”, which was followed by a claim that his “hands were tied” during the Binance negotiations. Bankman-Fried said that he “fucked up twice”, saying that “a poor internal labeling of bank-related accounts meant that I was substantially off on my sense of users’ margin.”
This led to there being only 80% of user funds available for the withdrawal requests that flooded in on Sunday, rather than the 24x average daily withdrawals that FTX usually preserved. What on Earth he was doing using customer funds in the first place wasn’t addressed.
CZ Comes Under Fire
Bankman-Fried went on to explain that FTX was seeking funding from a number of parties, although he didn’t sound at all confident on a positive outcome:
14) So, what does this mean going forward?
I’m not sure–that depends on what happens over the next week.
But here are some things I know.
— SBF (@SBF_FTX) November 10, 2022
Incredibly, Bankman-Fried thought it appropriate to throw some barbs at Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao and refer to the loss of billions in user funds as a game:
20) At some point I might have more to say about a particular sparring partner, so to speak.
But you know, glass houses. So for now, all I’ll say is:
well played; you won.
— SBF (@SBF_FTX) November 10, 2022
Mea Culpa Falls on Deaf Ears
Responses to Bankman-Fried’s tweet thread were inevitably savage, with many people picking up on the perhaps unintentional tone he adopted:
https://t.co/bjxIg8WdgW pic.twitter.com/vZQjBscJ3K
— Dylan LeClair 🟠 (@DylanLeClair_) November 10, 2022
— Cobie (@cobie) November 10, 2022
Some even criticized Bankman-Fried’s decision to post a lengthy mea culpa in the first place:
Usually in this kind of situation, it’s actually better to tweet less, not more.
NOT LEGAL ADVICE
— Jake Chervinsky (@jchervinsky) November 10, 2022
The FTX founder is lucky that the company is based in the Bahamas and so officially has no U.S. customers, otherwise he would be in even more trouble than he already clearly is.
However, with his apology thread not addressing the fact that user funds were used to prop up Alameda Research to the tune of billions of dollars it did little to calm the turbulent waters still threatening to drown him.
