Reuters July 6 news: Sam Bankman-Fried, the head of FTX, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges, said that although the worst of the liquidity crunch may have passed, he and his company still have "a few dollars on hand." Billions" of funding are available to support companies that could further destabilize the digital asset industry.
The 30-year-old SBF, who is from California but lives in the Bahamas where FTX is based, has emerged as a white knight for cryptocurrencies in recent weeks, offering a lifeline to digital asset platforms struggling as cryptocurrency prices fall. Bitcoin is down about 70% from its all-time high of nearly $69,000 in November.
SBF said in an interview: "More companies have started to reach out to us recently, and the situation of these companies is generally not terrible. Although some smaller cryptocurrency exchanges may still fail, the industry has surpassed 'Other traditional financial firms must lose'.
SBF’s crypto trading firm Alameda Research gives crypto lender Voyager Digital (VOYG.TO) $200 million in cash and stablecoin revolving credit, as well as Bitcoin financing, as The company faces losses from exposure to cryptocurrency hedge fund Three Arrows Capital On Wednesday, Voyager filed for bankruptcy
Also in June, FTX handed over a $250 million revolving credit facility to U.S. cryptocurrency lender BlockFi. And announcing a deal on Friday to give FTX purchase rights based on certain performance triggers, SBF said the bailout was intended to protect customer assets and stop the epidemic from rebounding in the system.
He said: "With consumption. It's important to build trust with investors that things will work as advertised, and if that trust is broken, it's hard to get it back."
In January of this year, FTX launched FTX Ventures, a A $2 billion venture capital fund focused on investing in digital assets, which has since been used to help bail out companies that lack liquidity and have no assets, said
SBF: "Everything does get more expensive. Our company still has enough cash on hand to do a $2 billion deal if necessary. "If the most important thing needs a one-time rescue, we can spend more than a few billion dollars." But he emphasized that this is not his preference.
SBF has made billions arbitraging cryptocurrency prices in Asia since 2017, when FTX While doing these pointless things, he used his own cash to support failed cryptocurrency companies.
He said: "FTX has shareholders and we have a responsibility to do what is reasonable for them. I certainly feel that burning my own money is more important." "Comfortable".
SBF also revealed in May that he personally held a 7.6% stake in Robinhood Markets Inc (HOOD.O) (purchasing it to take advantage of the trading app's weak stock price).
Forbes put SBF's net worth this year It was pegged at around $24 billion, but Bloomberg's Billionaires Index for May said that number has been cut in half as the cryptocurrency market collapses
Cryptocurrency Winter
As The U.S. Federal Reserve Becomes Positive Investors flee the cryptocurrency market as interest rates are raised to combat hyperinflation
SBF, who graduated from MIT in 2014, said the cryptocurrency price collapse known as the "crypto winter" may have bottomed out. Prices have stabilized, but that will largely depend on the macroeconomic situation. "I don't think it's an existential threat to the industry, but I do think it's a little worse than I expected,"
SBF said at Quantitative Trading . Jane Street, who began his career in finance before starting cryptocurrency trading firm Alameda Research, founded FTX in 2019, which was valued at $32 billion in January.
He has said he plans to do so. Giving away 99% of his wealth, he may spend up to $100 million supporting candidates in the 2024 election cycle, focusing on issues such as COVID-19 prevention and bipartisanship.
While rival cryptocurrency exchanges have faced layoffs after an earlier hiring spree, FTX has about 300 employees and Crunchbase believes Alameda has fewer than 50 employees.
"Every quarter this year, I expect our workforce to be bigger than the last quarter, but we're trying not to grow crazy fast," he said.
