The crypto community has expressed heavy disapproval of a New York Times interview with FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, saying it paints a soft picture of the situation.
The crypto community is beginning to draw attention to a New York Times report on Sam Bankman-Fried. The piece, titled “How Sam Bankman-Fried’s Crypto Empire Collapsed,” talks about how the exchange fell.
However, crypto community members believe that the piece airbrushed the events and glossed over key details. Specifically, they took offense to how it looked over some key reports and the soft touch with which it reported the downfall of FTX.
Statements such as “[FTX] collapsed last week after a run on deposits left his crypto exchange, FTX, with an $8 billion shortfall” was criticized. The crypto community sees it as stealing and points to this as another example of understatement.
The crypto community has been quite vociferous in its criticism of FTX’s dealing, saying that it was effectively gambling with customers’ funds. Many called it a softball piece. Kraken co-founder and CEO Jesse Powell chided the NYT for “pumping the FTX scam.”
Zcash founder Zooko Wilcox stated that it was disgusting complicity on the part of the publication.
High-profile figures lambast NYT interview
The crypto community has almost universally condemned the report, with key figures in the industry expressing their thoughts on Twitter. Coinbase co-founder and CEO Brian Armstrong tweeted that this was a turning point for citizen journalism, declaring,
“Twitter has broken just about every piece of this FTX story using blockchain analytics, while NYT is writing puff pieces on a criminal. Feels like a turning point for citizen journalism and loss of trust in MSM.”
Whistleblower Edward Snowden also commented on the matter, saying the same as the industry insiders,
“Sam Bankman-Fried admits robbing ~5 million people, and he’s getting puff pieces in the NYTimes. Daniel Hale is suffering in a dungeon for the “crime” of revealing 9 out of 10 people we kill with drones are mere bystanders. Justice really is blind.”
Investor Balaji Srinivasan tweeted that the NYT was covering up the crimes committed by SBF. He also called the former FTX CEO “Soros junior” and someone who “bought off the entire media, nonprofit, political, and regulatory establishment.”
Others were more poetic in their criticism, calling the NYT piece a “breathless love letter.” The flak continues to pour in from the crypto community, and this doesn’t look like it will fade soon.
SBF and others reportedly under supervision
Sam Bankman-Fried and associates are reportedly under supervision in the Bahamas and were allegedly looking to escape to Dubai.
The Bahamian supreme court has also approved two provisional liquidators to take handle FTX’s assets. It will work with authorities on “a regulator-to-regulator basis, as this event is multijurisdictional in nature.”
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