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Sam Bankman-Fried, the ex-billionaire CEO of crypto exchange FTX, prostrated himself before the Twitterverse on Thursday, apologizing profusely for the collapse of a $32 billion company that sent shock waves through the industry.
“I’m sorry. That’s the biggest thing,” the 30-year-old wunderkind wrote in a 22-tweet thread. “I fucked up, and should have done better.”
Earlier this week, Bankman-Fried made the shocking announcement that he would be selling his company to rival Binance because of a “liquidity crunch.” A so-called “death spiral” had pulled the value of his company-issued token down 22 percent, and the company did not have the capital to back users’ investments. Bankman-Fried said the sale would stabilize the company and protect customers. But less than 30 hours later, Binance pulled out of the deal, declaring that the company’s problems were “beyond our control or ability to help.”