The former CEO of failed cryptocurrency exchange FTX says he’s down to his last $100,000—and that was just the last time he checked.
In an interview on Monday, Axios asked Sam Bankman-Fried—who was once said to be worth $26.5 billion—about his personal finances. His response: “Am I allowed to say a negative number?”
“I mean, I have no idea,” Bankman-Fried said. “I don’t know. I had $100,000 in my bank account last I checked.”
He said determining his wealth was “complicated,” and that basically everything he had was “tied up in the company,” which was valued at $32 billion before its collapse.
Of course, earlier this month FTX filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The company suffered a liquidity crisis due to a customer exodus, leading to its collapse in just 48 hours and allegations of fraud.
“I wish I’d been more careful,” Bankman-Fried told Axios. “I obviously deeply regret this. I’ve been focusing on volume, rather than positions for balances. I should have been more responsible, and I should have been more on top of what was going on.”
He said he thinks regulation could have helped prevent FTX from imploding.
“There’s certainly an extent to which that I wish there had been someone who wasn’t me who was in charge of managing conflicts of interest,” he said, adding, “I wish that I had more reporting and transparency to outside parties.”
The implosion has shifted the image of Bankman-Fried, who often went by SBF, from a crypto hero and the next Warren Buffett to a cautionary tale who’s lost billions of his personal wealth and at least $1 billion of customers’ funds, Reuters previously reported.
Our new weekly Impact Report newsletter will examine how ESG news and trends are shaping the roles and responsibilities of today's executives—and how they can best navigate those challenges. Subscribe here.
