Last night, the cryptocurrency market was shaken up again. And this time it was one of the most influential platforms, FTX, that was hit.
Considered the main competitor of leader Binance, FTX has, in turn, had liquidity problems. It all started with rumors on the subject, then the suspension of withdrawals (which does not bode well), and finally, the announcement of the takeover of FTX (but not FTX.us) by its rival Binance.
In a tweet, Sam Bankman-Fried admits that the platform was indeed having liquidity issues, which is why he turned to Binance. “[…] the important thing is that customers are protected”he also explained.
2) Our teams are working on clearing out the withdrawal backlog as is. This will clear out liquidity crunches; all assets will be covered 1:1. This is one of the main reasons we’ve asked Binance to come in. It may take a bit to settle etc. — we apologize for that.
— SBF (@SBF_FTX) November 8, 2022
Sam Bankman-Fried: his fortune almost disappeared in a day
In a recent article, Bloomberg took an interest in the fortune of Sam Bankman-Fried, following these revelations, as well as the takeover announcement. The site tracks the biggest fortunes in the world in real time. And according to estimates, at one point, that of the boss of FTX had already reached 26 billion dollars.
Prior to last night’s announcement, Sam Bankman-Fried’s fortune was estimated at $15.6 billion. But at present, it would only be close to a billion dollars. SBF (the name carried by the former billionaire on Twitter) would have seen his fortune melt by 94% in one day and is no longer on Bloomberg’s list.
According to the media, it is the “biggest one-day slump on record among billionaires tracked by Bloomberg.”
But how was this calculation made?
In its wealth index, the American media assumes that FTX’s liquidity problems were caused by Alameda Research, the trading company of SBF. Furthermore, Bloomberg assumes that investors in these two companies, including Sam Bankman-Fried, will be “annihilated”. As a result, the media estimates the values of FTX and Alameda at 1 dollar.
As of the night before last, SBF’s shares in FTX were valued at $6.2 billion, while its shares in Alameda were valued at $7.4 billion. Today, these would no longer be worth anything.
Why is this a shock?
In any case, the collapse of FTX and the rapidity of events are a real shock for the industry. Indeed, the cryptocurrency exchange seemed solid and had weathered the crypto winter quite well.
Bankman-Fried even threw a few lifelines to save some platforms, including BlockFi, Voyager Digital and Celsius, from collapsing cryptocurrency values.
He also invested in Robinhood. And rumors about a potential acquisition had even circulated.
Just a week ago, the collapse of FTX seemed unthinkable. In any case, for its part, Binance is learning lessons.
Changpeng Zhao, boss of the cryptocurrency leader, says his company will be more transparent in the future, publishing proof of reserves.
All crypto exchanges should do merkle-tree proof-of-reserves.
Banks run on fractional reserves.
Crypto exchanges should not.@Binance will start to do proof-of-reserves soon. Full transparency.— CZ 🔶 Binance (@cz_binance) November 8, 2022
