FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried announced Friday that he had agreed to testify before the House Financial Services Committee at a Tuesday hearing following months of back and forth in Washington over whether he would have to be subpoenaed. Bankman-Fried stated that the committee still thinks it would be helpful for him to testify, but it was unclear if he would travel to Capitol Hill in person or remain in the Bahamas. He has been residing there since FTX filed for bankruptcy last month.
Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced former darling of crypto, appears to have blamed Binance founder Changpeng CZ Zhao in a tweet thread. Although he has stated he won’t be as helpful as he’d like due to limited access to his data, both personal and professional, Bankman-Fried has indicated his willingness to cooperate by agreeing to appear before Congress either in person or via video link from the Bahamas where he’s been living since his company declared bankruptcy last month. SBF is now set to testify under oath on the 13th.
Yesterday’s darling in the crypto exchange space has taken a nosedive as news broke that Sam Bankman-Fried, founder and CEO of FTX, had a public meltdown following the withdrawal of a key investor. After CoinDesk published an article about the alarming concentration of FTT tokens being used as collateral for billions in loans to Bankman-Fried’s crypto hedge fund Alameda Research, the market became unsettled. In response, Zhao took to Twitter to express her displeasure at Sam’s offensive tirades against members of the Binance team. While FTX was once considered one of the most reliable exchanges, its reputation has taken a severe hit. Only time will tell if it can ever recover from this unfortunate situation.
Bankman-Fried’s recent public appearances have done little to address investors’ and regulators’ concerns surrounding the tumultuous events of the final days at FTX. The refusal to cooperate with lawmakers, especially with Chairwoman Waters’ demand for an oath hearing, has caused many questions to remain unanswered. We apologize for any distress or confusion caused by Bankman-Fried’s lack of cooperation. We remain committed to providing transparency and hope to resolve this matter soon.
The number of investors and pundits that think Bankman-Fried should be in prison is growing, showing how serious the situation has become. NFT Today Magazine reported that before Bankman-Fried agreed to testify, legal experts believed his sentence could hypothetically last his entire life if convicted. Meanwhile, Representative Waters denied this possibility and claimed that a subpoena was on the table before the agreement.
Marine Corps Veteran-turned-national-tv-personality Eric Mitchell is a world leading expert in sports media, regularly appearing on the world’s largest outlets from BBC, MSNBC, Fox News, Bloomberg, CNN and more. His signature blend of snark and industry expertise landed him columns at none other than RollingStone, GritDaily, PopWrapped, Disrupt — and most recently — Editor in Chief at NFT Today Magazine. When he’s not making media appearances or running his empire at LifeFlip Media, he can be found entertaining his thousands of loyal followers on social media through his authentic filter-free content.
