In his NYT interview, SBF gave few straight answers while admitting to gross errors, denying claims of fraud, and claiming he “didn't knowingly commingle funds”
You hold customers' funds and don't do ANYTHING with them except hold them. When your customers ask for them back you give it to them - immediately. https://twitter.com/... @cmsintern : Intern notes from SBF's interview @dealbook Summit on: - Alameda commingling funds 💰🤝 - SBF's political donations 👨⚖️ - FTX houses & drugs 🏖️💊 And frankly too much more @andrewrsorkin <> @SBF_FTX https://twitter.com/... Alex Svanevik / @asvanevik : Imagine a journalist's grandmother lost her savings due to bank CEO stealing $10B of customer deposits. Would they have been writing portraits and “are you getting any sleep” interviews with CEO? https://twitter.com/... @unusual_whales : Sorkin: “Can you please ask SBF why he decided to steal my life savings, and $10 billion dollars more from customers to give to his customers, Alameda. ” SBF: “Yeah. Um, I mean, I'm deeply sorry about what happened.” https://twitter.com/... @punk6529 : 1/ On SBF & FTX I think this is not going to be a hugely long thread (I think). It is not going to be hugely insightful for anyone deep in crypto. But maybe it will help as a reference to our friends in the media who are struggling quite a bit with this topic @mleejr : 2022 SBF: Welcomed with open arms to an interview at NY Times DealBook Summit with a live audience laughing and applauding 2008 Bernie Madoff: https://twitter.com/... Noam Blum / @neontaster : Here's the transcript of the SBF interview. He uses the phrase “I don't know” 17 times. He uses the word “sorry” once. https://www.nytimes.com/... @tomi : If not the CEO, who's to blame for “huge management failures” and “sloppy accounting”? https://twitter.com/... Byron York / @byronyork : Sam Bankman-Fried is asked how his parents ended up on the deed of a $16.4 million home in the Bahamas. Who knows? He's not a detail guy... From NYT: https://www.nytimes.com/... https://twitter.com/... @kashhill : Has anyone in this much potential legal peril ever been this committed to ‘talking it out’ with journalists? https://www.nytimes.com/... Benedict Evans / @benedictevans : I'm not sure that 'we lost $10bn of customer money because we made no effort to keep track of it and we're just a bunch of useless fuckwits' is a great legal position, even if it was true. @autismcapital : “I was nervous starting November 2nd when the Alameda balance sheet was leaked on Coindesk. I was nervous that would lead to substantial losses for Alameda. I did not think it would lead to a massive loss for FTX's customers. I was viewing it as Alameda would be tight on funds.” https://twitter.com/... @autismcapital : Andrew says “It sounds like this is a bunch of smart kids on Adderall having a sleepover party.” Sam says “Look, I messed up.” https://twitter.com/... @seyitaylor : This is my take too — I don't think he's being wild at all. I think he's doing what he's always done — focused on building a narrative and he's hired a really good public relations/crisis management firm to help him do it. I think it is working but I think he also goes to jail. https://twitter.com/... Anil / @anilsaidso : 12 months ago: https://twitter.com/... PoliMath / @politicalmath : The entire reason SBF said he donated untraceable dark money to Republicans is b/c he knows that saying this will make Republican's want to go easier on him How do people fall for this? Are we all idiots? https://twitter.com/... Austen Allred / @austen : I admit I'm a little bit shocked at how many people are totally fine letting someone “aw shucks, my bad” their way through stealing $8 Billion of their customers' money Dan Davies / @dsquareddigest : 😡 When you tell people their money is segregated and it's not, when you use one company's bank account and represent it as another, that's fraud! That's the fraud, that bit there! The bit you tried to do! What he means is he never intended to get caught. https://www.ft.com/... Jesse Livermore / @jesse_livermore : It should be illegal to buy fake money with someone else's real money. Luke Martin / @venturecoinist : If you missed the SBF interview, don't worry. He has proven that he's willing to lie about the fraud he committed so you can't trust anything he says. Perfect example: Nov 7th deleted tweet claiming “FTX has enough to cover all client holdings. We don't invest client assets.” https://twitter.com/... @ercwl : It is very clear that Sam is trying to add together the “mislabeled fiat account” and “improper risk policies on FTX wrt Alameda” into negligence rather than theft, this is of course a strategy that he has devised with the help of lawyers (and perhaps his parents?). @ercwl : So is allowing Alameda to collateralize half the entire margin exchange trading side with FTT and SRM. So is printing SRM onchain out of thin air to prop up their balance sheet (this is one I've focused on the most because it so clearly demonstrates malicious intent). https://twitter.com/... @dystopiabreaker : it really is not complicated. the ftx tos and implicit social contract said “you deposit or buy tokens, we hold them 1:1”. instead, SBF and his accessories stole the tokens and traded with them. they lost on the trades. Neeraj K. Agrawal / @neerajka : basically the nyt interview was actually pretty good and asked tough questions so now people are focusing on the reflexive response to clap at the end of a live event to continue their “media is secretly helping sam” outrage Jake Chervinsky / @jchervinsky : “I wasn't running Alameda. I didn't know exactly what was going on. I didn't know the size of their position.” If you're @carolinecapital or @alamedatrabucco right now, I assume you're watching this and thinking very hard about your options. DOJ is only a phone call away. Matthew Goldstein / @mattgoldstein26 : Sam basically saying he wasn't in charge of Alameda and wasn't aware how bad the problems were there even though he was the master of the FTX eco system Alex Sherman / @sherman4949 : Big picture, SBF making the argument to @andrewrsorkin that what he was doing wasn't criminal but was just due to lack of oversight and awareness, which he effectively blames on Chinese walls and the fact he wasn't running Alameda. #dealbook @tree_of_alpha : SAM BANKMAN-FRIED SAYS I WAS NOT RUNNING ALAMEDA, I DIDN'T KNOW THE SIZE OF THEIR POSITION You shit no one is buying this Josh Barro / @jbarro : I realize trying to make this make sense is pointless, but even if SBF had his hands completely off from Alameda (lol yeah right) shouldn't he have noticed its humongously gigantic “margin position” at FTX in his capacity running FTX? Ben McKenzie / @ben_mckenzie : If you believe that Sam and his pals lived together, slept together, and ran FTX and Alameda out of offices next to each other, and yet Sam never knew about commingling funds I have a fake currency to sell you oh wait @bennetttomlin : “Some of them were wiring to Alameda Research to get credited on FTX” yeah no shit Jack Farley / @jackfarley96 : Sam Bankman-Fried claiming to be hands-off with Alameda Research is ridiculous. SBF literally owned 90% of Alameda as of September 30, per bankruptcy filings https://twitter.com/... Brian Sullivan / @sullycnbc : Need to know which people at the firm had the authority to: 1) shift the assets from FTX to Alameda and, 2) who could've apparently misrepresented Alameda's positions (the “discrepancy” he keeps referring to) https://twitter.com/... Brian Sullivan / @sullycnbc : In this interview .. Bankman-Fried throwing his former girlfriend Caroline Ellison and the Alameda hedge fund under many, many buses. Eric Balchunas / @ericbalchunas : Watching intv with SBF and he's basically blaming it all on Alameda and ignorance/lack of attention on his part. Sorkin's questions are satisfyingly tough, I have to admit, very sober scene, a long way from laser eyes. Alexandros Marinos / @alexandrosm : Lol. Trying to throw Carolyn under the bus. Dude owned 90% of Alameda stock, Ellison owed none. At least according to this: https://coinstats.app/... https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/... @grdecter : Sam emphasizes that he had little to do with Alameda and keeps referring to the fund as “them” instead of “we” (classic distancing language) He says that he made a mistake with oversight, but doesn't know what happened besides that. @cryptokaleo : How can you say that and not even address the hack where hundreds of millions of dollars from FTX US and FTX were taken and commingled? https://twitter.com/... @theddbby : it's good that Sam is trying to put everything on alameda hence Caroline and Trabucco. the latter will talk more now Oliver Renick / @ojrenick : I get Sorkin wants to find the smoking gun of SBF's physical responsibility for the loss, but we need to know more specifics about how Alameda lost it. All stemmed from Luna? And we need to know how Sam now feels about the underlying value of crypto having watched so much go to 0 @paikcapital : This guy really pretending like he doesn't know what's happening with Alameda lol “Is that correct, it was Alameda right?” - Sam Mona Salama / @monasalama_ : SBF: “You have the margin trading, you have customers borrowing from each other. Alameda was 1 of those. I was frankly surprised by how big Alameda position was which points to another failure of oversight on my part & failure to appoint someone to be chiefly in charge of that” Mona Salama / @monasalama_ : @andrewrsorkin: “Let's just make this very straight. Was there commingling of funds? It appears like there's a genuine commingling of the funds that are of FTX customers that were not supposed to be commingled with your separate firm?” SBF: “I didn't knowingly commingled funds” @coffeebreak_yt : Sorkin calls out the charity angle. Asks if this was part of Sam's ‘scheme’ to create regulation to self-certify what was going on at FTX/Alameda. Huge question. Sam is nervous again. Sam Kessler / @skesslr : @carolinecapital ARS: What did you tell your law professor parents? SBF: “I called them up and said hey guys, I think there might be a problem. Looks like Alameda's position might be imploding here... I'll tell you more when I know more.” Leigh Drogen / @ldrogen : Sam gives bullshit answers about not being involved in Alameda and not knowing anything and being unaware of stuff etc etc etc but that's all nonsense Criminal prosecutors will find the emails and texts and nail down all of his compatriots Kenneth P. Vogel / @kenvogel : Asked where the money for his political donations came from, @SBF_FTX says “basically profits,” then suggests it came from Alameda's “trading profits.” https://twitter.com/... Wayne Hsiung / @waynehhsiung : This is really the central point. Were loans to Alameda from FTX customer accounts ok? Two reasons they probably were. First, is that these were margin accounts, i.e., customers were making trades beyond their actual assets in their account by borrowing from FTX. 1/2 https://twitter.com/... @coffeebreak_yt : “hey guys, something might be wrong” — Sam says this was what he told his parents when he found out FTX/Alameda was collapsing. “nobody close to me deserved this” Leigh Drogen / @ldrogen : Sorkin hasn't done a bad job with this interview, but at the end of the day the only 2 things that matter r nailing down SBF to why he was using exchange funds with Alameda, and how Alameda lost all that money Neither have been given hard answers (because they are incriminating) @xrpcryptowolf : Everyone who watched the entire Sam interview can agree that we still don't know the specifics of how FTX collapsed but what is clear is that Alameda was the main problem. This is exactly why crypto exchanges should not leverage trade against their own customers 🤡 Trung Phan / @trungtphan : Thoughts: — SBF says he didn't knowingly commit fraud or mis-use funds — Throwing Caroline/Alameda under bus — Andrew asked straight Qs which SBF sidesteps or blames lack of oversight Not sure why SBF did this (+ still thjnk NYT shouldn't host him). This part happened, though. https://twitter.com/... @grdecter : Here's what we learned from Sam Bankman-Fried's live interview: -Money was always comingled between FTX and Alameda -Sam has no idea what happened with the money or why Anyone believe him? @iamdcinvestor : “I wasn't running Alameda, I didn't know the size of their position” THE FUCK YOU DIDN'T Karen Finerman / @karenfinerman : Wow @andrewrsorkin that was mesmerizing. I do believe @SBF_FTX feels bad, I do believe he was shocked at how quickly it unraveled but I can't possibly believe he couldn't appreciate how closely Alameda and FTX were intertwined and how he's not clear on whether he took customers $ @jonwu_ : Sorkin is missing a basic question: WHY WOULD ANYTHING IMPACTING ALAMEDA HAVE AN IMPACT ON FTX? @jonwu_ : On where his donations come from: “Basically profits, substantially smaller than the trading profits that Alameda had made over the prior few years.” Forbes reports Alameda lost $3.7 billion from inception to 2021. https://www.forbes.com/... @jonwu_ : The New York Times was soft in its coverage of FTX's collapse. Thankfully, Andrew Ross Sorkin was not. He put Sam Bankman-Fried to the sword at the NYT Dealbook Summit: “Sounds like a bunch of kids who were on Adderall having a sleepover.” Here are the other highlights: https://twitter.com/... Anna Irrera / @annairrera : Sam Bankman-Fried denies trying to perpetrate a fraud while admitting to making many errors at the helm of FTX in an interview with Andrew Ross Sorkin https://www.bloomberg.com/... via @business @crypto_chase : Nothing we didn't already know and I don't plan to go back down the drama hole, but SBF is TRULY a pathological liar. Look at his subconscious nod/smile, “yeah you got me there” and then completely fumble his words about being in close relationship/living with Alameda members. https://twitter.com/... Will Hild / @willhild : Sorkin pressed SBF on the claim that Alameda was used to knowingly “wash money” into FTX and thus get around standard Know Your Customer rules: https://twitter.com/... Wall Street Silver / @wallstreetsilv : He is trying to portray this ask a “risk management” issue. And the media is letting him. This was a customer theft issue. Not a risk management issue. 🔈 sound 😢 https://twitter.com/... Cas Piancey / @caspiancey : So 40% of volume on FTX was from Alameda, that's what he said? Will Hild / @willhild : I've followed the finance world closely for over 15 years now and that was, without a doubt, one of the wildest interviews I've ever seen. A full breakdown of the Sam Bankman-Fried DealBook interview: (thread 🧵) https://twitter.com/... Balaji / @balajis : Remember, they don't really care if your crypto is stolen. They're more interested in stealing your crypto. https://archive.ph/OBe82 https://twitter.com/... Balaji / @balajis : They want you fired for a tweet, while they clap for a fraud. https://twitter.com/... @poordart : What if FTX/Alameda only failed because half the team got Neurosyphilis as a direct result of the polycule? Depicted: FTX employees getting ready for lunch https://twitter.com/... Ben Hunt / @epsilontheory : Everyone who ever pitched a BlockFi deck ... Everyone who ever sat on the BlockFi board ... Everyone who knew BlockFi sent >$1b to an offshore HF and broker-dealer for little or no collateral ... should be getting a phone call from an AUSA in the NY Southern District about now.
Context & Ripple Effects
As FTX’s collapse prompted questions about Alameda’s access to customer funds, Bankman-Fried paired an admission of management failures with a denial that any commingling was knowing. His account also followed his claim that FTX’s collateral fell sharply amid a credit squeeze and customer run.
The interview became part of a broader public-accountability dispute: critics had already challenged the soft treatment of Bankman-Fried in a prior New York Times profile, while later testimony continued to center on what he knew about missing customer money.
First-order effects
- Bankman-Fried’s distinction between gross errors and knowing commingling puts FTX’s handling of customer assets—and his separation from Alameda—at the center of his public defense.
- FTX customers and counterparties are left with competing accounts: Bankman-Fried denies fraud while commentators allege Alameda used customer funds.
Second-order effects
- Alameda’s claimed independence becomes harder to assess on Bankman-Fried’s account alone, increasing the importance of records and testimony; later, lawyers used Bankman-Fried’s own messages and public statements to challenge his answers.
- The contradiction between FTX’s custody expectations and the alleged transfer of funds deepens the credibility burden for crypto platforms seeking customer trust.
Third-order effects
- The episode points to a crypto legitimacy gap in which exchanges that present themselves as custodians face durable pressure to demonstrate that customer assets are segregated from affiliated trading operations.
- If public denials and internal evidence continue to diverge in major failures, founder-led assurances will carry less weight than auditable controls and governance separation.
The trend: Crypto’s legitimacy debate is shifting from founders’ explanations of losses toward whether exchanges can substantiate custody and affiliate-separation claims.