What If FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried Never Signed Bankruptcy?

The FTX collapse was among the most traumatising experiences for crypto investors, where they witnessed the downfall of one of the biggest crypto exchanges, founded by Sam Bankman-Fried. With severe allegations and a guilty verdict, SBF is now serving a 25-year sentence for fraud and has been in jail for the last two years. However, in a recent interview, he suggested that bankruptcy might have been unnecessary and that the company could have paid customers back if he had not signed the bankruptcy documents.

However, with so many proven charges, are these claims valid? Let’s discuss this.

Sam Bankman-Fried Claim: FTX Had the Money to Survive

In a recent interview with Tucker Carlson at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, the FTX founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, claimed that the exchange was not insolvent when it collapsed. He argues they could have $93 billion in assets against $15 billion in liability today if nothing intervened.

More importantly, he claimed that the FTX bankruptcy was a forced move as the people controlling it quickly dissipated the company’s assets.

During the interview, Carlson asked him if he had any money. To which Bankman replied:

Well, basically, no. The company I used to own, maybe I still own, I don’t know, is in bankruptcy, and nothing has intervened. Today, it would have about $15 billion in liabilities and about $93 billion in assets. So, the answer should be, in theory, that there was enough money to pay everyone back in kind at the time, or today, with plenty of interest left over and tens of billions left for investors. But that’s not how things worked out. Instead, it all got roiled up in a bankruptcy, where those controlling it dissipated the assets incredibly quickly. They were siphoned off, tens of billions of dollars worth. And it’s been a colossal disaster. And, I mean, not solving that problem is, by far, the biggest regret of my life. So you knew everybody else in the crypto business.

Interestingly, in a previous New York Sun interview, he blamed the law firm Sullivan & Cromwell for mishandling the FTX bankruptcy. Sam Bankman-Fried claims that they declared that the exchange only had $1 billion, but there was much more.

The Analyst Counterpoint Sam Bankman-Fried: The FTX Collapse Was Inevitable

The Bankman’s interview claims seem true to many, but not everyone is buying his declarations. Analyst Tim Carden argued that the numbers don’t add up. He highlights that FTX had $15 billion in liabilities before the intervention but only $3 billion in assets, making a severe $12 billion shortfall.

Tim Carden has suggested that Bankman-Fried is engaging in a Ponzi-like scheme. This conclusion is made as he misappropriated customer funds and deceived investors. More importantly, the prosecutors have proved that the SBFs committed fraud, including embezzlement, lying about FTX’s financial health, and running a complex web of deception to keep the company afloat.

Did FTX’s Bankruptcy Lawyers Make Things Worse?

With Sam Bankman-Fried blaming the handlers (lawyers) of FTX bankruptcy, a new perspective has come to attention. Analysts like Karbon believe that the fraud itself was Sam Banman-fried’s biggest mistake, but signing the bankruptcy document was another.

In an X post, Krabon argues that if SBF had refused and the company had held its portfolio instead of selling it off, FTX might have survived the collapse.

As he said in this interview, FTX/Alameda would have ~$93B in assets if they had held their portfolio. The bankruptcy lawyers bottom sold more than just crypto, they nuked his Anthropic position.

He calculated that the continuous holding of the assets (including its stake in AI company Anthropic) could have become $4.8 billion today instead of the $380 million (worth at the time of selling).

Considering this scenario, he claimed that FTX could have recovered and paid customers without the bankruptcy.

What If Sam Bankman-Fried Had ‘Faked It Till He Made It’?

As Karbon mentioned, they could have made it if Sam Bankman-Fried had faked and kept holding the assets. However, Carden’s analysis reveals that even if they had not filed for bankruptcy, the FTX collapse was inevitable due to the weight of financial mismanagement.

More importantly, it is ethically wrong as the experts believe that the SBF would have dived deeper into the fraud than management, making it even more severe.

Ultimately, whether FTX could have averted the collapse is divisive. Some believe a different approach could have saved the company, while others claim the company was doomed regardless.