Sam Bankman-Fried faced a grilling at The New York Times DealBook Summit on Wednesday. The embattled FTX founder said he didn’t want to think about the prospect of jail time after the exchange collapsed. He denied ever trying to commit fraud — and insisted that he hasn’t hidden funds away. And after Forbes estimated that his net worth peaked at over $25 billion last year, the 30-year-old said his wealth is now “close to zero” — and he has $100,000 in his bank account and just one working credit card. All of this will be little comfort to thousands of people who remain locked out of their savings. Elsewhere, he claimed FTX’s U.S. arm is fully solvent, meaning “withdrawals could be opened up today and everyone could be made whole.”
SBF’s interview — performed virtually from The Bahamas — lasted for about an hour overall. He admitted that he failed in his duty to stakeholders, customers and creditors — and that he should have been more aware about what was going down at Alameda Research. But the embattled entrepreneur pushed back on reports of drug-fueled nights at the Bahamian penthouse where he and a number of his colleagues lived, saying: “When we had parties, we played board games and 20% of people would have three-quarters of beer each or something like that. And the rest of us would not drink anything. I didn’t see any illegal drug use around me — you know, at the office at these parties.”
Kraken has become the latest to announce a large round of layoffs as the crypto industry’s year-long bear market deepens. The San Francisco-based exchange said that it was cutting 1,100 staff members — rolling headcount back to where it was 12 months ago as it “takes steps to weather the crypto winter.” Jesse Powell, who will soon step down as Kraken’s CEO, said gloomy economic conditions have resulted in “significantly lower trading volumes and fewer client sign-ups.” He also suggested the demise of FTX has “diminished near-term optimism about a crypto rebound.” As recently as June, Powell had insisted that Kraken was on a hiring spree rather than a firing spree — with plans to add 500 staff as others cut back.
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