Sam Bankman-Fried apologises for FTX crisis

Crypto chief Sam Bankman-Fried has apologised for the crisis at his crypto exchange FTX and sister trading firm Alameda Research.

In a series of tweets published on Thursday, Bankman-Fried said: “I’m sorry. That’s the biggest thing. I fucked up, and should have done better.”

In an update to users, he said FTX International had enough assets to cover client deposits, but that some of them were very illiquid.

FTX International is the non-US exchange, and Bankman-Fried repeated the claim that all FTX.US users “are fine”.

Alameda Research is winding down trading, and the FTX chief admitted he “fucked up twice”. The chief executive refused to rule out a potential future where FTX continues operating. If FTX does survive, Bankman-Fried said its first priority will be “radical transparency — transparency it probably always should have been giving”.

Further down in the Twitter thread, Bankman-Fried directed commentary to a “particular sparring partner” that is most likely to be chief of rival exchange Binance Changpeng Zhao. “Well played, you won”, he said.