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Sam Bankman-Fried ‘to break his silence’ over catastrophic FTX collapse

Sam Bankman-Fried
Sam Bankman-Fried's FTX crypto exchange filed for bankruptcy on 11 November. Photo: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty (Tom Williams via Getty Images)

Sam Bankman-Fried is poised to break his silence and discuss the details behind the dramatic collapse of the FTX exchange, according to an influential commentator that has travelled to the Bahamas in search of the fallen crypto-tycoon.

Crypto-journalist and host of the Bitboy Crypto podcast Ben Armstrong told Yahoo Finance on Tuesday he has travelled to the Bahamas to confront Bankman-Fried (SBF), amid the controversy over the collapse of one of the world's most prominent crypto-exchanges.

Check: Crypto live prices

Armstrong said: "Sam Bankman-Fried has agreed to do a Twitter Spaces with me in the next two weeks.

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"The panel for the Twitter spaces is only going to be me and Sam."

Armstrong has been a long-time opponent of Bankman-Fried and had warned investors to take their funds off FTX weeks before it came to light that the exchange was about to collapse.

Referring to his ongoing dispute with the former head of FTX Armstrong added: "This thing started between me and Sam and it's going to end between me and Sam."

Armstrong added that SBF had unblocked him on Twitter stating that this confirms the two have spoken.

"Why did Sam Bankman Fried get involved in crypto? For money and to push political narratives that is why he got into crypto. That is what he cares about and now we've got a guy who's on the Forbes list of billionaires. I think he's in the top 100 billionaires, and this is a guy that does not have the best interest of crypto at heart."

Before retreating from the public eye as the attention of the world turned to the Bahamas, Bankman-Fried gave a quick response to Armstrong's outspoken claims against him and tweeted: “It’s a huge honour to see the passion and intensity with which Bitboy regards me.

“Maybe someday I’ll feel as strongly about something as he does about me.”

Countdown to Crypto-Armageddon

Coindesk journalist Ian Allison blew the lid on the irregularities in FTX/Alameda Research's balance sheet in early November.

The balance sheet revealed that the $14.6bn (£12bn) of assets held by Alameda Research was heavily stacked with a large proportion of FTX's own FTT token (FTT-USD).

With outstanding liabilities of an estimated $5.1bn at Alameda Research, holders of FTT experienced rising panic that margin calls on those loans might decimate the value of FTT.

A bank run ensued, inflamed by warning tweets from Binance CEO Changpeng 'CZ' Zhao.

Following the disruptive tweets from 'CZ' Zhao, on November 11 FTX filed for bankruptcy.

And on the first-day declaration at FTX’s bankruptcy proceedings the newly appointed administrator CEO, John J Ray III, revealed his dismay at how the exchange had been operated.

He said: "Never in my career have I seen such a complete failure of corporate controls and such a complete absence of trustworthy financial information as occurred here.

"From compromised systems integrity and faulty regulatory oversight abroad to concentration of control in the hands of a very small group of inexperienced, unsophisticated, and potentially compromised individuals, this situation is unprecedented.”

Yahoo Finance asked SBF for comment on the Twitter Spaces interview, but he has yet to reply.

Watch: Get your money off exchanges' warns Bitboy Crypto after FTX scandal | The Crypto Mile