Graeme Sloan | Sipa via AP Images Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried said on Wednesday that the cryptocurrency exchange became “overconfident” and “careless” as it grew into a $32 billion juggernaut. “I was on the cover of every magazine and FTX was the darling of Silicon Valley,” he tweeted on Wednesday. His comments come just days after FTX filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy at the end of a disastrous week. The company entered a liquidity crisis as customers demanded withdrawals and rival exchange Binance scrapped its non-binding agreement to buy the company. In a series of tweets on Wednesday, Bankman-Fried said they were “creating problems” that were “bigger than [he] He said, to the best of his knowledge, he believed the exchange had created about $5 billion in leverage, when in fact it was about $13 billion. FTX may have more than 1 million creditors, according to an updated bankruptcy filing on Tuesday, hinting at the massive impact of its collapse on crypto traders. About 130 additional affiliates are in the bankruptcy process, including Alameda Research, Bankman-Fried’s crypto firm and its US subsidiary FTX. Bankman-Fried stepped down as CEO on Friday and was succeeded by John J. Ray III, although the outgoing chief is staying on to help with the transition. The founder of FTX said the company’s assets were “fine” two days before he was desperate for a bailout due to the liquidity crisis. It has since said in tweets that it is trying to recover deposits for the company’s customers. — CNBC’s MacKenzie Sigalos and Ari Levy contributed to this report.
