Business/Markets/Stocks/Economics Random, Random

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Founder of bankrupt crypto exchange FTX denies he has fled to South America
The crypto exchange has become mired in further controversy after it said it had detected unauthorised transactions and analysts flagged that millions of dollars of assets had been moved from the platform in "suspicious circumstances".

Saturday 12 November 2022 18:39, UK

The former chief executive of one of the world's biggest cryptocurrency exchanges has denied he fled to South America after firm filed for bankruptcy.

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was asked by Reuters about Twitter speculation he had flown to Argentina and responded in a text message: "Nope."

The 30-year-old, who has been removed as chief executive, told Reuters he was in the Bahamas, where he lives.

Meanwhile the crypto exchange has become mired in further controversy after it said it had detected unauthorised transactions and analysts flagged that millions of dollars of assets had been moved from the platform in "suspicious circumstances".

FTX filed for bankruptcy on Friday after its bigger rival Binance walked away from a proposed acquisition.

At least $1bn (£845m) worth of customer funds have vanished from the platform, Reuters reported, quoting sources.

The news agency said Mr Bankman-Fried had transferred $10bn (£8.4bn) of customer funds to his trading company, Alameda Research.

Further problems emerged when FTX's US general counsel Ryne Miller tweeted to say the firm's digital assets were being moved into so-called cold storage "to mitigate damage upon observing unauthorised transactions".

Cold storage refers to crypto wallets which are not connected to the internet to guard against hackers.

Earlier Mr Miller tweeted to say he was "investigating abnormalities with wallet movements related to consolidation of FTX balances across exchanges."

Blockchain analytics firm Nansen said it saw $659m (£557m) in outflows from FTX International and FTX US in the last 24 hours.

A separate analytics firm, Elliptic, said around $473m (£400m) worth of cryptoassets were "moved out of FTX wallets in suspicious circumstances early this morning", but it could not confirm the tokens had been stolen.

The crisis surrounding the exchange has raised further questions about the regulation of cryptocurrencies and other digital assets.

https://news.sky.com/story/founder-of-b ... sf-twitter

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The carnage hasn't stopped.





Casey Newton
@CaseyNewton
Update: company sources tell me that yesterday Twitter eliminated ~4,400 of its ~5,500 contract employees, with cuts expected to have significant impact to content moderation and the core infrastructure services that keep the site up and running.

People inside are stunned.

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[JazzNU]

A large advertising company already advised their companies to hold all Twitter spending. Was that not posted before? I'll see if I can find it.

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And the Miami Heat naively announce that they have cancelled their agreement with FTX for the naming rights of their arena.
Nope. When the company disappears and can no longer pay you, THEY cancelled the deal.
Wonder how the Lakers/Clippers are feeling about that Crypto.com deal.

I think they feel fine just as the Heat likely do. They basically took the money and ran like any crypto investor should've done. The deals were paid in actual money, not crypto and they collected more upfront than what the actual yearly rate is. Now, LA if things turn, will have options for the Staples Center sponsor. Miami, not so much at anything close to the same amount. Unless something has changed since they signed the FTX deal just a year or two ago, their next best naming rights offer was from BangBros. Seriously.

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On Slate Money Felix Salmon made it clear that if you participated in one of the US based exchanges you're probably getting some kind of money returned due to US laws. If you were invested or whatever it is you do with crypto in one of the many off shore what evers you're S.O.L.

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[JazzNU]

A large advertising company already advised their companies to hold all Twitter spending. Was that not posted before? I'll see if I can find it.

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This just keeps getting worse.

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From Legal Twitter:

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He seems to think this is a PR problem he can talk his way out of. It was all a game to him.