For a long time, the Twitter community demanded the arrest of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) after around a million customers had lost billions with the collapsed crypto exchange. Monday evening, he was arrested by police in the Bahamas after U.S. prosecutors brought a still-sealed indictment. He is now apparently to be quickly extradited to the U.S. to answer questions from prosecutors there. The comprehensive investigation of the FTX Case is an important building stone to make the crypto world whole again.
The United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York shared a sealed indictment with the Bahamian government, setting the stage for extradition and U.S. trial for the founder of crypto exchange FTX and crypto hedge fund Alameda at the heart of the crypto exchange’s collapse.
The FTX case has shown how easy it is to misuse and gamble away billions in customer funds with cryptocurrencies (some self-created) without serious regulatory oversight. The FTX collapse has permanently damaged investor confidence in crypto. Notwithstanding the billions in losses, SBF has presented itself on Twitter and various conferences, trying to portray the FTX collapse as a simple mistake or misjudgment even though it was very likely systematic fraud on a global level. The Twitter community was astonished and even angry about SBF‘s provocative audacity.
With the arrest of SBF and the legal processing of the FTX case, there is perhaps a chance for a reboot of the crypto ecosphere. Or in the famous words of SBF: to make the crypto scene whole again!