Sam Bankman-Fried says he only has $100,000 left in his bank account after FTX collapse: report
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- Sam Bankman-Fried said he has "no idea" the status of his personal finances after FTX's collapse.
- "I had $100,000 in my bank account last I checked," the former CEO told Axios.
- Bankman-Fried once had a net worth of $26 billion.
Sam Bankman-Fried, the former cryptocurrency exchange CEO who once had a new worth of $26 billion, is down to his last $100,000 after the implosion of FTX, he told Axios this week.
The investor took a massive hit in early November when the bulk of his net worth dropped from $15.6 billion to $1 billion in a single day following news that FTX needed a bailout.
Bankman-Fried told Axios on Monday that he had "no idea" what the state of his personal finances was after the collapse.
"Am I allowed to say a negative number?" he told the outlet. "I mean, I have no idea. I don't know. I had $100,000 in my bank account last I checked."
Bankman-Fried said "everything" he had was tied up in the now-failed company, making his financial situation "complicated."
FTX filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and Bankman-Fried resigned as CEO earlier this month after the company failed to secure a rescue following reports that the crypto exchange had transferred billions of dollars of client funds to Bankman-Fried's Almeda Research. Comments about his personal finances now come amid a challenging bankruptcy process as FTX creditors work to determine whether there's anything salvageable.
The former CEO has since apologized for the implosion, citing a combination of higher-than-expected leverage on FTX's books and high customer withdrawals as contributing to the company's rapid collapse.
Bankman-Fried told Axios this week that proper oversight may have prevented the swift breakdown of FTX, before ultimately acknowledging his role in the fiasco.
"I wish I'd been more careful... I obviously deeply regret this. I've been focusing on volume, rather than positions for balances," he told the outlet. "I should have been more responsible, and I should have been more on top of what was going on."