Former FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) will be making his first public appearance since the collapse of his firm on Wednesday.
Key Details
- SBF announced that he would be speaking Wednesday at the New York Times 2022 DealBook Summit hosted by columnist Andrew Ross Sorkin.
- The annual conference is based in New York City and brings together many of the most powerful and influential CEOs, politicians, and leaders in the world to discuss their work in person.
- He is scheduled to appear alongside Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, TikTok CEO Shou Chew, CNN host Van Jones, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, U.S. Treasure Secretary Janet Yellen, former U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Why it’s Important
The appearance from SBF marks the first time that he will address the public or criticism since he allowed one of the largest firms in cryptocurrency to collapse, collapsing the crypto market in the process. Sorkin has promised to address the ongoing concerns and status of the bankruptcy at the conference.
“There are a lot of important questions to be asked and answered. Nothing is off limits,” says Sorkin.
The announcement was met with derision from the crypto community, with Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz asking “why is he not in jail?” The New York Times, Forbes, and other media outlets have faced criticism from the community for making SBF the public face of philanthropy and cryptocurrency.
“The New York Times has recently received a lot of flak for publishing what the crypto community view as ‘puff pieces’ for SBF. Last week, the outlet ran an article titled ‘How Sam Bankman-Fried’s Crypto Empire Collapsed.’ It did not address any of the issues surrounding the FTX collapse, mismanagement, or fraud. Even Twitter’s new CEO Elon Musk commented about the article asking, ‘Why the puff piece @nytimes?’” says the crypto blog Be In Crypto.
Backing up a Bit
FTX collapsed shortly after a liquidity crisis was announced on November 8. The company filed for bankruptcy on November 11 and SBF resigned. The company is currently in liquidation and facing extensive bankruptcy hearings, with client assets missing and others tied up in The Bahamas by the government.
SBF is currently scheduled to appear before the U.S. House of Representatives Financial Services Committee next month to testify on the ongoing bankruptcy litigation.