The collapse of the cryptocurrency platform FTX has taken away in just a few days the enormous fortune accumulated by its founderSam Bankman-Fried, one of the best-known figures in the sector and whose wealth was estimated at 26,000 million dollars.
The Billionaires Index Bloomberg, which calculates in real time the money that the richest in the world have, attributed to Bankman-Fried a fortune of almost 16,000 million dollars at the beginning of the week. This Friday, the figure is zero.
According to the agency, FTX’s American business -which this Friday declared bankruptcy and of which the founder controlled 70%- it was this very friday valued at 1 dollarwhile the millionaire participation that the businessman had in the Robinhood company was eliminated from his assets after learning that he had it through his investment firm Alameda Research.
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Alameda is included in the bankruptcy process that began this Friday and it is believed that Bankman-Fried may have used his Robinhood shares to support loans that he is now unable to pay.
In filing for bankruptcy protection, FTX and Alameda said they have more than 100,000 creditors, with liabilities between $10 billion and $50 billion, while their assets are in the same range.
From being a celebrity of the ‘cryptoworld’ to bankruptcy
The demise of the 30-year-old businessman’s fortune is one of the most spectacular in history, although Bloomberg admits that Bankman-Fried may still have assets that are not included in its index.
In recent years, he had become one of the best known figures in the sector and had appeared on the covers of numerous economic media as one of the great faces of the world of cryptocurrencies.
This Friday, in parallel to the declaration of bankruptcy, FTX announced that Bankman-Fried resigned as CEO, although he said that he would work to support the transition in the company.
FTX was once valued at 32 billion dollars and in recent days it collapsed due to lack of liquidity and with users rushing to withdraw their funds.
Finally, on Thursday Bankman-Fried apologized and admitted that it made mistakes when calculating the levels of liquidity that were necessary, as well as when explaining the situation of the platform once the crisis broke out.
Meanwhile, numerous details about how the platform works have been coming to light, including the fact that FTX used billions of dollars deposited by its clients to finance risky investments.
FTX, a source told The Wall Street Journal, lent the money to its investment firm, Alameda Research, which it used in aggressive trades and now owes the platform some $10 billion.
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EFE International news agency based in Madrid and present in more than 110 countries.