Sam Bankman-Fried expressed optimism about crypto regulations months before FTX's collapse
FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried expressed optimism about future of cryptocurrency regulations 10 months before company's bankruptcy
SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce joins "The Claman Countdown" and analyzes the FTX collapse and how quickly cryptocurrency regulatory policy will come.
The collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX and allegations of financial improprieties against founder Sam Bankman-Fried have drawn attention to his efforts to influence regulations on the crypto industry, as well as his past comments on the subject in the months before his firm's implosion.
The Biden administration and Congress have been debating new regulations and oversight regimes for cryptocurrencies for months, and Bankman-Fried sought to support political candidates he believed would back rules favorable to FTX once elected to office.
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Campaign finance records show that Bankman-Fried donated at least $37 million in the 2022 election cycle, nearly all of which went to PACs supporting Democratic candidates. He was the second-largest donor to Democratic candidates and left-wing groups during the 2022 midterm elections, trailing only liberal billionaire George Soros.
Sam Bankman-Fried, founder and chief executive officer of FTX, speaks during a Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee hearing in Washington, D.C., Feb. 9, 2022. (Sarah Silbiger/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images)
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Ten months before FTX's collapse, Bankman-Fried said he was "optimistic" that there will be progress on cryptocurrency regulations in the next year during an exclusive interview on FOX Business Network's "The Claman Countdown" on Jan. 11, 2022.
Sam Bankman-Fried - FOX Business Interview (Jan. 11, 2022)
Sam Bankman-Fried joins "The Claman Countdown" to talk about recent bitcoin sell-offs and the future of cryptocurrency.
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Host Liz Claman asked Bankman-Fried whether he would consider buying more crypto assets like bitcoin while the SEC is "holding regulation over the crypto market like a sword of Damocles" and what the FTX founder thought the future held for oversight of the market.
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Bankman-Fried responded, "I'm optimistic that over the next year or so we'll see some really substantial steps forward in the global regulatory environment and the U.S. regulatory environment for cryptocurrencies. You know, it's been a pretty tough struggle back and forth, I think, for a while. And I think [the] industry is as much to blame for that as anyone else in terms of the relationships that have been developed between, you know, the industry and regulators."
"But I think that there's a light at the end of the tunnel there. And I think there are some straightforward policy proposals that could solve for what regulators want, while also allowing cryptocurrencies to really grow a lot as an asset class moving liquidity and volume onshore," he added.