DeutschFTX founder SBF speaks up. Three years after the FTX crash, he gives a new assessment of the events. Without insolvency proceedings, everything would have gone well, he thinks today. The crypto exchange was never actually insolvent. In reality, the company collapsed due to embezzlement worth billions. This is how the company founder wants to clear his reputation today.
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“FTX Was Never Insolvent” – SBF Publishes Statement
FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) is showing himself to be combative again after a year and a half in US prison. With the help of a friend, he delivered a message to the public via X. In it, the former billionaire claims: “FTX was never insolvent.”
Looking back: Experienced trader SBF founded FTX in 2019. The company quickly rose to become one of the largest crypto exchanges on earth. Just three years later, in November 2022, the company fell apart after a bank run. Part of the drama: prominent investors, embezzlement worth billions and intrigues of the crypto scene.
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Because FTX passed on customer deposits to its trading arm Alameda Research and invested in advertising, a total of ten billion US dollars disappeared. The embezzlement of funds should be costly for SBF.
According to his own statements, Bankman-Fried lost almost his entire fortune in the collapse of his company conglomerate. FTX could no longer serve the massive withdrawal requests from customers. CZ, the boss of competitor and FTX investor Binance, had triggered the bank run.
Today, SBF thinks: That’s not how it really went. His company was indeed illiquid due to the enormous pressure to pay out, but never insolvent. In March 2024, Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in prison in the USA as head of the FTX Group. A court found him guilty in several cases of fraud and conspiracy as well as money laundering.
He has been in custody since December 2022 – enough time to review what happened again. A few hours ago, the self-proclaimed philanthropist published a 15-page document in which he re-explains the events from his current perspective.
That’s why SBF is Now Complaining about the Insolvency Proceedings Surrounding FTX
SBF now complains about the insolvency proceedings as the core of all evil. Although the FTX founder admits that there was a lack of liquid funds in November 2022 to fulfill the payouts of all customers, this project could have succeeded with enough time, as sufficient investments had been available.
“FTX filed for bankruptcy when customers were still owed eight billion US dollars. For two years, customers received nothing back. Where did these billions go?” asks the 33-year-old.
“After two years of delay, the estate announced that all customers can be paid out at 119 to 143 percent. (…) After paying out 8 billion US dollars in debt and one billion US dollars in legal fees, the bankruptcy estate still has eight additional billions. In fact, FTX was never insolvent. There were always enough assets to fully compensate all customers (…), both in November 2022 and today,” explains SBF.
If he had not transferred control of the company to an insolvency administrator at the time, this liquidity crisis would have been successfully completed within a month, the founder believes.
In fact, the FTX insolvency administration under John J. Ray III is paying out a higher US dollar amount to former customers than the underlying cryptocurrencies were worth on the cut-off date, November 11, 2022. Since they only receive fiat currencies instead of their coins, many creditors are still writing off losses.
The recovered funds come from existing reserves and deposits of the FTX Group. In addition, several companies of the conglomerate were sold.
Blockchain analyst ZachXBT considers SBF’s presentation to be manipulative. Over the last three years, many of the underlying investments have recorded enormous profits. These prompt SBF to make his comment. At that time, in 2022, the customer deposits were still missing – due to the embezzlement by Bankman-Fried.
[ZachXBT says:]
The creditors were paid from crypto prices at the time of the FTX Nov 2022 bankruptcy and not at current prices which caused users to take massive losses if they held assets like SOL or BTC.
Illiquid investments worth more today are just a coincidence.
You…
— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) October 31, 2025
The 33-year-old prisoner sees the main fault with himself. He should have shown strength in the time of crisis to protect the company, customers and investors. His biggest mistake was to file for bankruptcy.
