FTX collateral crashed to $8 bn from $60 bn

SAN FRANCISCO: Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), founder of bankrupt crypto exchange FTX and trading house Alameda Research, “froze up in the face of pressure” as his company collapsed, bringing its collateral down to $8 billion from $60 billion.

In a letter to FTX employees, accessed by CoinDesk, the former CEO apologised to them, saying he is “deeply sorry about what happened”.

“I didn’t mean for any of this to happen, and I would give anything to be able to go back and do things over again. You were my family,” he wrote in the letter. “I’ve lost that, and our old home is an empty warehouse of monitors. When I turn around, there’s no one left to talk to,” SBF added.

Bankman-Fried pocketed $300 million after a big funding raise last year, the report claimed.