FTX’s Bankman-Fried Says It Is Worth Losing Money To Support The Crypto Industry

Twitter icon  •  Published 1 year ago  •  Hassan Maishera

FTX’s CEO Sam Bankman-Fried says he doesn’t mind losing money if his bailouts keep the crypto infrastructure humming.

FTX has been one of the biggest spenders during the ongoing bear market as several companies struggle to continue operating.

FTX co-founder and CEO Sam Bankman-Fried has stated that he doesn’t mind losing money to support the broader cryptocurrency market. He said this while speaking at the Bloomberg Crypto Summit in New York on Tuesday.

According to Bankman-Fried, he isn't bothered by losing some money if his bailouts keep the crypto infrastructure humming. The FTX boss stated that;

“It’s OK to do a deal that is moderately bad in bailing out a place. The bar is not: Is this a good return on investment? It’s more about maintaining the health of the wider industry.”

Sam Bankman-Fried said he had allocated over $1 billion via FTX and  Alameda Research to rescue companies currently struggling during this bear market. So far, the companies have offered costly rescues to crypto lender BlockFi and crypto broker Voyager Digital as they struggle to operate amid a broad market downturn.

The FTX CEO told the attendees at the summit that he plans to help out more companies moving forward. 

Although FTX has issued millions of dollars to companies like BlockFi and Voyager Digital, some of them continue to struggle. As per the terms of the agreement, FTX have the option to acquire BlockFi outrightly while Voyager Digital filed for bankruptcy two weeks ago. 

When asked about the Voyager Digital deal during the summit, Bankman-Fried laughed and shrugged off the the money spent on the company. 

The FTX CEO added that the struggles within the broader cryptocurrency market might not be over. According to the conversations he has been having with some cryptocurrency firms, many of them are still not clear about their financial picture. He maintained that he is interested in helping these companies figure out their finances. 

“Step one is literally, ‘Do we know what’s going on?’” he said.

Bankman-Fried also revealed that FTX plans to start buying bitcoins if the price of the leading cryptocurrency fell to a certain level. However, he didn’t mention the price he intends to buy more bitcoins. He said;

“We did have real conversations at some point. There was a price. We did not hit that price.”

The bear market has significantly affected Bitcoin’s value, and the leading cryptocurrency dropped below $20k a few times over the past month. According to Bankman-Fried, when Bitcoin dipped below $20k last month, he was traveling, and his first impulse was to race back to his company to help it handle things.

However, he later realized that he didn’t need to help out as the system they created at FTX didn’t need any intervention. 

The numerous FTX reviews in both the United States and other parts of the world show just how important the cryptocurrency exchange has become to the broader ecosystem.

The FTX fees are some of the lowest in the cryptocurrency market. This feature, alongside other excellent ones, allowed FTX to overtake Coinbase to become the leading cryptocurrency exchange in the United States. 

Author

Hassan Maishera

Hassan is a Nigeria-based financial content creator that has invested in many different blockchain projects, including Bitcoin, Ether, Stellar Lumens, Cardano, VeChain and Solana. He currently works as a financial markets and cryptocurrency writer and has contributed to a large number of the leading FX, stock and cryptocurrency blogs in the world.