Sam Bankman-Fried said on Thursday that he will be winding down the trading firm Alameda Research and is attempting to raise liquidity for the troubled FTX International exchange, as he scrambles to keep the world’s second largest crypto exchange alive after a bailout deal with Binance failed earlier this week.
Bankman-Fried said in a series of tweets that he is engaging with a “number of players” to raise capital for FTX’s international business and those discussions are at various stages including reaching letter of intents and termsheets deliberations. FTX’s U.S. business is “fine” and “100% liquid,” he said.
He did not disclose the names of the firms or individuals he is engaging, but one of them appears to be Justin Sun, the founder of Tron blockchain. Axios reported on Thursday that Bankman-Fried is also in talks with Kraken, another large crypto exchange.
The 30-year-old entrepreneur, hailed as a wunderkind, said he assumes all responsibility for the mess FTX’s at and any raise for FTX International unit will be first used to do right by the customers. “I’m sorry. That’s the biggest thing. I fucked up, and should have done better,” he said.
FTX International faced liquidity crunch earlier this month when it saw withdrawals worth $5 billion on Sunday, he said.
Troubles are mounting for FTX. The exchange’s sudden collapse has attracted scrutiny from regulators and many players are beginning to cut ties. Tether, the issuer of the world’s most used stable crypto coin, has frozen $46 million of USDT on the Tron blockchain in compliance with a request from law enforcement, it said Thursday.
(Developing story)
Sam Bankman-Fried says FTX in talks to raise capital, Alameda Research to wind down trading by Manish Singh originally published on TechCrunch
