Sam Bankman-Fried used the phrase “I don’t know” 20 times during his interview with The New York Times.
The former head of the FTX crypto exchange, Sam Bankman-Fried, followed up by giving a separate commentary on the situation surrounding the site, participated in a of the conversation with a columnist of a famous newspaper – The New York Times. Interestingly, during this conversation, Bankman-Fried used the phrase “I don’t know” 20 times, but he also made some very interesting assertions.
For instance, he claimed that the crypto exchanges in the US (FTX US) and Japan (FTX Japan) are 100% backed by liquid assets, so he doesn’t understand why withdrawals from those platforms are not currently open.
He also admitted that he made a number of mistakes, but he believes that neither FTX employees, including, it turns out, himself, nor those who were co-investor owners in that crypto exchange, should be responsible for the problems with FTX.
Among the mistakes named is the negligent treatment of FTX’s relationship with its trading firm, Alameda. Speaking of Alameda, Bankman-Fried noted that FTX was actively intertwined in assets with that firm, as FTX itself had difficulty opening bank accounts around the world and that it could have taken years to resolve those issues.
That said, he could not lead Alameda because he believed he would not have enough time to be the head of both that organization and FTX, and he also believed there could be a conflict of interest.
The former FTX CEO also believes he was wasting his time registering expensive purchases and buildings in his relatives’ names, even though those tangible assets were in fact used for the company’s needs, as the former FTX CEO assured, including “just to play board games.”