SBF Says FTX US Should be Solvent, Unsure Why Withdrawals Not Enabled

Sam Bankman-Fried is doubling down on his claim that FTX US should never have filed for bankruptcy. 

The former FTX boss believes the US entity is still entirely solvent and could re-open for withdrawals right away.

The FTX US Situation

In a tweet on Thursday, Bankman-Fried reiterated his comments at the New York Times Dealbrook Summit the day prior. During the interview, he claimed that FTX US is “fully solvent” and “fully funded”, and that its financial situation is isolated from the international exchange. 

“When I filed, I’m fairly sure FTX US was solvent, and that all US customers could be made whole,” he wrote. “To my knowledge, it still is today.”

The former billionaire added that he was “not sure” why withdrawals were ever turned off at the exchange and was surprised customers hadn’t been compensated already. 

On November 11th, SBF filed FTX for bankruptcy, alongside over 100 affiliated companies. Included in the filing was FTX’s sister trading desk Alameda Research, and its American branch FTX US. 

However, Bankman-Fried tweeted only a day prior to the filing that assets at FTX US were “100% liquid” and not financially impacted. This made the company’s bankruptcy filing and withdrawal suspension the following day all the more confusing for users. 

In an interview with citizen journalist Tiffany Fong on November 16th, Bankman-Fried said he had only included FTX US within his bankruptcy filing due to outside coercion. He added that billions of dollars of investor interest happened to pour in moments afterwards, to his frustration. 

“FTX US was so fucking solvent that it could absolutely [throw] 250 million dollars to a hat on the way to bankruptcy, [and] it’s still solvent,” he said. “About 500 million over,” he said.

Who Believes SBF?

As SBF finally shows his face to explain the collapse of his company, many in the crypto industry aren’t buying his claims.

Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz called SBF’s recent interview with Andrew Sorkin “delusional.”

“Sam was delusional about what happened and his culpability in it,” said Novogratz.

“He needs to be prosecuted. He will spend time in jail. And it wasn’t just Sam. You don’t pull this off with one person.”

Meanwhile, Shark Tank star Kevin O’Leary said he believed Bankman-Fried was telling the truth – though the crypto community at large was opposed to his take. 

kevin i am starting a crypto exchange called “trust me bro” can you invest 5 million dollars for 20%

i might accidentally lose the money buying a mansion or something but otherwise it’s totally safe

— Shibetoshi Nakamoto (@BillyM2k) December 1, 2022