Sam Bankman-time Fried’s has come. The star of FTX and Alameda Ventures put both of his businesses in a strong position and now appears to be taking the goodies home. The most recent Forbes article regarding covert insolvent swaps best expresses it.
“Like J.P. Morgan during the stock market panic and crash of 1907, Bankman-Fried is taking advantage of the crypto chaos to expand his empire.”
It appears that claims regarding his involvement in creating the “crypto chaos” are substantially overstated.
“Over the last few weeks, the crypto market has been trending down. The contagion effect of the Terra/ Luna extinction event rocked every company out there, most of all those who offered yield on cryptocurrency deposits like BlockFi and Celsius and hedge funds like Three Arrows Capital. These companies’ problems and possible liquidation of assets, in turn, sent the crypto market into even more turmoil.”
When discussing BlockFi and Voyager’s bailouts in a Forbes article, a similar picture with a significant distinction is being presented. Bankman-Fried is offering a sacrifice in this instance:
“Between FTX and his quantitative trading firm Alameda, he provided the companies with $750 million in credit lines. There is no guarantee that Bankman-Fried will recoup his investment. You know, we’re willing to do a somewhat bad deal here, if that’s what it takes to sort of stabilize things and protect customers.”
And as you can see, Bankman-Fried himself says so. The story puts doubt on his assessors a few lines below:
“Bankman Fried’s cash infusions are far from altruistic. He has emerged as a smart vulture capitalist in the beleaguered crypto market, knowing full well that his own fortune depends on its healthy rebound and growth.”
Today there was a rumor going around that FTX was looking for a way to buy Robinhood. The Forbes piece goes into further detail on it:
“Bankman Fried has also bought into crypto brokerage Robinhood, where FTX has already accumulated a 7.6% stake and is rumored to be considering an acquisition.”
Additionally, according to a Forbes estimate, there are more than 600 crypto exchanges worldwide. They continue by quoting Bankman Fried as saying that “certain third-tier exchanges are already privately insolvent.” Is it implied that his two businesses would want to purchase some of them? Maybe.