What we’re reading (11/17)
“Sam Bankman-Fried Tries To Explain Himself” (Vox). “Bankman-Fried…apparently wanted to talk. About how FTX and his hedge fund Alameda Research had gambled with customer money without, he claims, realizing that’s what they were doing. About who gets lauded as a hero and who’s the fall guy. About regulators. (‘Fuck regulators.’) About what he regrets (‘Chapter 11,’ the decision to declare bankruptcy) and about what he would have done differently with FTX and Alameda (‘more careful accounting + offboard Alameda from FTX once FTX could live on its own’).
“FTX Auditors Doubled As Crypto Industry Cheerleaders” (Wall Street Journal). “There is a race among crypto brokers, lenders and exchanges to calm their anxious clients by getting the blessing of an auditor. But the type of audits they are getting and the collapse of an audited firm such as FTX shows how far that sector is from a traditional regulated, scrutinized industry.”
“Investor Losses From FTX’s Implosion Are Growing” (DealBook). “The breadth of the global fallout from FTX’s collapse has continued to emerge. Temasek, Singapore’s state-backed fund, said on Thursday that it had fully written down its $275 million investment in the crypto exchange, joining the Silicon Valley firm Sequoia Capital and SoftBank, the Japanese tech conglomerate, in declaring their stakes worthless.”
“FTX Suggests Sam Bankman-Fried Transferred Assets To Bahamas Government Custody After Bankruptcy: Filing” (CNBC). “FTX in a bombshell emergency court filing Thursday said evidence suggests Bahamian regulators directed former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried to gain ‘unauthorized access’ to FTX systems to obtain digital assets belonging to the company after it had filed for bankruptcy protection.”
“Tech Layoffs Signal Slowing Economy But Not Yet A Recession” (Washington Post). “Tech company layoffs are not expected to prompt a tsunami of job losses in other industries, but they are another sign of a cooling economy more broadly, economists say.”
