FTX US has always been solvent and its customers should be made whole, according to SBF

Written by sbf | Published 2022/12/15
Tech Story Tags: crypto-exchange | sbf | ftx | ftx-bankruptcy | sam-bankman-fried | ftx-us | solvency-crisis | insolvency

TLDRWhat SBF would have testified in front of Congress - part 9 of 11 - FTX USvia the TL;DR App

Sam Bankman-Fried’s Written Testimony Notes Dec 12, 2022, is part of HackerNoon’s Legal PDF Series. SBF was scheduled to testify before Congress a day before his arrest on Dec 12, 2022 in the Bahamas. So, these are the notes that he would have presented in front of Congress that we never actually got to hear. You can jump to any part here.

This is part 9 of 11

Feature Image: HackerNoon’s Stable Diffusion AI, prompt “Solvency crisis, liquidity crunch”

FTX US

American customers were protected, at least until Mr. Ray’s team took over.

  1. FTX US has oversight from a number of regulators, including–for various of its entities–the CFTC, the SEC, FINRA, and many state regulatory agencies, all of which, to my knowledge, are in the US. FTX International has oversight from a completely different set of regulators, none of which are US regulators.
  2. FTX US maintained a separate orderbook, matching engine, and userbase from FTX International.
  3. I do not believe that there was any large margin position on FTX US that went significantly insolvent during the period in question (or, for that matter, any other time).
  4. To my knowledge, FTX US had segregated funds from FTX International, at least as of when John Ray became CEO of FTX US.
  5. In fact, to my knowledge, FTX US is, and always has been, solvent. I believe that US customers were not directly harmed by the events in early November, and that all US customers of FTX–and in fact all customers of FTX US, wherever they reside–could and should be made whole immediately.
  6. As of when I last had access to FTX US data–which was on or around November 10th, 2022–to the best of my knowledge FTX US had net assets (assets in excess of customer liabilities) of roughly $350m, with no insolvent customer positions or corporate mismatches between assets and liabilities that could make a substantial impact on the above number.
  7. Given the above, I believe that: a) US customers’s assets were successfully safeguarded b) US customers could be made whole immediately c) US customers should be made whole immediately
  8. When John Ray became CEO of FTX US on November 10th, 2022, FTX US was still operational, and still processing customer withdrawals. I intended and expected for withdrawals to remain open, making all customers whole. I am surprised that did not happen.
  9. I do not believe that the Chapter 11 process is or ever has been appropriate for FTX US, and believe that US customers are being materially harmed by the process without good reason.

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Written by sbf | "the password to my LinkedIn account still hasn’t been returned, though, so I’m not overly optimistic"
Published by HackerNoon on 2022/12/15