Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), once worth $26 billion, says he now has just $100,000 left in his bank account after the FTX empire collapsed.
After doing everything possible to save the financial crisis, FTX declared bankruptcy on November 11, and the founder SBF also resigned as CEO. Once known as the “Golden Boy of the Currency Circle”, he fell from the altar overnight.
According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, in March this year, SBF’s net assets once soared to 26 billion U.S. dollars. On November 7, its net worth was still nearly 16 billion U.S. dollars. Immediately after the withdrawal, SBF’s net assets plummeted 94% to $1 billion that day, and almost returned to zero on the day it declared bankruptcy.
SBF was interviewed by the US news website Axios on Monday. When asked about “what is the personal financial situation after the collapse of FTX”, SBF’s response was “don’t know”.
Can I say negative numbers? I mean, I don’t know. But the last time I checked my bank account, there was $100,000 in it.
SBF said “everything” he owned was tied to the now-defunct company, and his financial situation was “complicated” as a result.
He went on to point out that with proper oversight early on, FTX might have been prevented from going bankrupt overnight, and SBF finally admitted that he had made a mistake in the FTX thunderstorm:
How I wish I had been more cautious… I deeply regret this. I’ve always focused only on volume, not on balanced positions. I should have been more responsible, I should have been more in control of what was going on.
