(Bloomberg) -- Here are the biggest key takeaways from Sam Bankman-Fried’s appearance at the New York Times DealBook Summit Wednesday. Click here for our TOPLive blog.
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- Bankman-Fried admitted that he “screwed up” and did make major mistakes as CEO of FTX. He said he should’ve focused more on risk management and protecting customers and looked more closely at the growing interconnectedness between FTX and Alameda Research over the past year.
- The disgraced crypto founder asserted that he “didn’t ever try to commit fraud” and that he felt bad about hurting customers, investors and other stakeholders. When asked if there were times where he lied, Bankman-Fried did not provide a straight answer.
- Regarding regulation, Bankman-Fried said he felt like he had spent too much time and energy getting licenses for FTX. He spoke disparagingly of the regulatory process, saying that he spent hundreds, even thousands, of hours meeting with regulators about getting approval for FTX US to offer futures trading, to no avail. He also said many regulated companies focused too much on their public perception rather than actually helping people, which was something FTX did as well.
- Bankman-Fried’s own personal wealth has evaporated. Once hailed as a crypto billionaire wunderkind, he said during the interview that he’s now down to one credit card and $100,000 in the bank. He was previously worth $26 billion at his peak.
- While Bankman-Fried said there’s a lot he doesn’t know, including his own future prospects, he did seem to think that there was a chance that some customers, particularly those at FTX US, could become whole. However, he also hedged that hope with a big caveat: “I can’t promise anyone anything.”
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