Alameda

Sam Bankman-Fried confronted over the fall of FTX in live interview

Sam Bankman-Fried was speaking at The New York Times’ DealBook Summit live on Nov. 30.

Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried has made his first live public appearance since the collapse of FTX — answering a number of questions during the DealBook Summit in New York on Nov. 30. 

The hour-long interview was conducted on stage by New York Times journalist Andrew Sorkin, speaking to Bankman-Fried via video conference.

The pair discussed many subjects, including whether FTX and Alameda Research were commingling customer funds, what Bankman-Fried would say to customers who lost everything in FTX and whether he was concerned about being held criminally liable for its downfall.

Sam Bankman-Fried speaking at The New York Times’ DealBook Summit. Source: The New York Times

Commingling of funds

In one of the earlier parts of the interview, Bankman-Fried claimed to have “unknowingly commingled funds” between Alameda and customer funds at FTX.

In this instance, the “commingling” referred to the customers’ funds deposited with FTX and loaned to its sister company Alameda. Sorkin referred to a submission sent in by a viewer earlier, which pointed out that this happened despite FTX’s terms of service stating that customers’ digital assets it holds are not its property and that it would not act as if they were.

Sorkin noted, “There appears to be a genuine commingling of the funds that are FTX customers’ that were not supposed to be commingled with your separate firm.”

Bankman-Fried, however, denied knowing about the commingled funds and blamed it on poor oversight.

“I unknowingly commingled funds. […] I was frankly surprised by how big Alameda’s position was, which points to another failure of oversight on my part and failure to appoint someone to be chiefly in charge of that,” said Bankman-Fried, adding:

“But I wasn’t trying to commingle funds.”

Bankman-Fried also appeared to deflect blame for the actions of Alameda, claiming he wasn’t privy to all the goings-on at the firm. 

“I wasn’t running Alameda. I didn’t know exactly what [was] going on. I didn’t know the size of their position,” he said.

Criminal liability

Sorkin queried Bankman-Fried about whether he was concerned about his criminal liability at this point, which the former CEO responded to by suggesting it’s not his focus, noting:

“I don’t think that I personally have, you know, [criminal liability.] […] But I think the real answer is that’s not what I’m focusing on.”

Bankman-Fried continued to say that while he’s had a “bad month,” he’s not thinking about his own future, and what matters is trying to do everything he can to help customers and stakeholders of FTX.

He was also asked later in the interview what his lawyers were currently telling him and whether they thought he should be speaking in public.

To the laughter of the audience, Bankman-Fried replied “very much not,” and while suggesting he was given the classic advice of not to say anything, added:

“I have a duty to talk to people, I have a duty to explain what happened and I think I have a duty to do everything I can to try and do what’s right.”

Misleading the public

When asked when he knew there was a problem at FTX, Bankman-Fried suggested that “the time that I really knew there was a problem was November 6.”

However, some in the community have already pointed out that Bankman-Fried had said as recently as Nov. 7 — in a tweet that has since been deleted — that “FTX is fine. Assets are fine,” and had suggested that a competitor was “trying to go after us with false rumors.”

In another Nov. 7 now-deleted tweet, he asserted that FTX has enough to cover all client holdings, doesn’t invest client holdings and would continue to process all withdrawals.

Sorkin pressed Bankman-Fried on this point later in the interview, with the former CEO saying:

“When you look at November 6, I was feeling nervous, but I felt like things were probably going to end up okay.”

Sorkin also pressed Bankman-Fried on the funds that went missing from the exchange shortly after FTX filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, with the former FTX CEO briefly touching on this by giving the caveat that he was being cut off from FTX’s systems at this point.

He then went on to provide the “answer to the extent that I know it,” which was that the FTX US team and Bahamian regulators had both seized some, in addition to some “actual improper access,” which he could not provide details on.

Related: FTX proves MiCA should be passed fast, officials tell European Parliament committee

FTX famously imploded earlier this month after a liquidity crunch led to it halting customer withdrawals and subsequently filing for bankruptcy on Nov. 11.

The former ”white knight” of cryptocurrency has since shown up in a range of media appearances since he stepped down as CEO.

It is understood that much of the liquidity crisis was due to Alameda using client funds to cover loans that were being recalled due to the credit crunch caused by the collapse of Terra.

FTX and Alameda likely colluded from the very beginning: Report

Researchers at Nansen concluded that at least 86% of all FTT tokens were initially controlled by Alameda or FTX.

According to a new report published by blockchain analytics firm Nansen on Nov. 17, bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX was allegedly intertwined with crypto trading firm Alameda Research from the very beginning. Both entities were created by crypto businessman Sam Bankman-Fried, who is now being considered for extradition by U.S. authorities for his role in the collapse of the exchange. 

Based on available on-chain evidence, Nansen identified a series of wallets placing Alameda as one of the earlier liquidity providers for FTX in May 2019. Of the initial 350 million in its native token FTT’s supply, 27 million tokens allegedly ended up in Alameda’s FTX deposit wallet, while the two firms controlled 86% of the supply combined. The setup meant very little FTT was circulating in the open market, making the tokens extremely susceptible to price manipulation.

Fast forward to the bull market of 2021, when the FTT token rose from its seed price of $0.10 to $84; Nansen believe that the two firms could not cash out their large positions without seriously spooking the markets, and likely used their FTT positions as collateral to take out loans.

The blockchain analytics firm then pointed out almost $1.6 billion worth of FTT being exchanged between Alameda Research and troubled brokerage firm Genesis Global Trading in September 2021. The problem, according to Nansen, began when FTX and Alameda started reinvesting the loans back into their own FTT tokens in order to bid up the price, resulting in mounting leverage.

The report continued, stating that things appeared to work fine until the crypto crash of June 2022. With the blowup of centralized finance firms such as Three Arrows Capital and Celsius, which all had exposure to Genesis, Alameda likely faced a liquidity crunch that could not be resolved unless it sold its FTT tokens for cash. However, this was not possible without crashing its price and causing contagion in the FTX exchange.

On-chain data then showed that over $4 billion of FTT tokens were sent from Alameda to FTX, illustrating the possibility of a loan issuance in the equivalent amount. Some have raised the likelihood of FTX moving customer deposits as the basis for an emergency liquidity injection into Alameda.

In any scenario, the issue finally came to light when Changpeng Zhao, CEO of cryptocurrency exchange Binance, decided to liquidate the exchange’s leftover investments in FTX consisting of FTT. The move spooked investors and simultaneously caused both a bank run on the FTX exchange and intense selling pressure on FTT. Soon, users realized that the funds FTX promised simply weren’t there, leading to the beginning of the end of what used to be the world’s third-largest cryptocurrency exchange. 

Sam Bankman-Fried says he regrets filing for bankruptcy: Report

The former CEO had a wide-ranging interview in which he made a number of startling remarks.

The former CEO of FTX Sam Bankman-Fried has expressed deep regret over filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last week, calling it his “biggest single fuckup.” 

In a wide-ranging interview with Vox, which was published on Nov. 16, Bankman-Fried reportedly answered questions on a number of topics such as the Nov. 11 Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing, his thoughts on regulators, ethics, how FTX and Alameda “gambled with customer money” and the FTX hack.

According to screenshots of the Twitter conversation between Vox reporter Kelsey Piper and Sam Bankman-Fried, the former FTX CEO said that although he has made multiple mistakes, the biggest one was listening to what people told him to do and filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

“I fucked up big multiple times,” Bankman-Fried wrote. “you know what was maybe my biggest single fuckup?”

“The one thing *everyone* told me to do […] chapter 11.”

Bankman-Fried said that if he hadn’t filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, “everything would be ~70% fixed right now,” and “withdrawals would be opening up in a month with customers fully whole,” adding:

“But instead I filed, and the people in charge of it are trying to burn it all to the ground out of shame.”

After admitting to a “liquidity crunch” on Nov. 8, Bankman-Fried had reportedly sought $8 billion from investors in emergency funding to cover a shortfall, even offering his personal wealth to “make customers and investors whole.”

When asked what was next for him, Bankman-Fried suggested he still had two weeks to get the $8 billion, which is “basically all that matters for the rest of my life.”

However, in a Nov. 16 statement, FTX CEO and chief restructuring officer John Ray has reminded the public that Bankman-Fried “has no ongoing role at [FTX], FTX US, or Alameda Research Ltd. and does not speak on their behalf.”

Related: FTX’s new CEO John Ray coldly addresses SBF’s erratic tweets

Turning to other topics discussed during the interview, Bankman-Fried said that his push for regulations was “just PR,” before adding:

“Fuck regulators, they make everything worse, they don’t protect customers at all”

Hours later, Bankman-Fried appeared to have walked those sentiments back, noting in a Nov. 16 tweet that:

“It’s really hard to be a regulator. They have an impossible job: to regulate entire industries that grow faster than their mandate allows them to.”

Bankman-Fried also confirmed that the money being removed out of FTX was indeed a hack, suggesting it was either an “ex-employee, or malware on an ex-employee’s computer.”

The former CEO has once again stood behind his claim in a deleted tweet that FTX has never invested clients’ assets, suggesting it “was factually accurate” as Alameda was the company that was investing the funds.

Cointelegraph has reached out to Sam Bankman-Fried for additional commentary but has not received a response by the time of publication.

Crypto stablecoin issuer Circle adds Apple Pay support

The stablecoin issuer said Apple Pay support allows traditional businesses to experience the benefits of crypto settlement while allowing crypto businesses to engage with non-crypto-using customers.

Circle, the issuer of the United States dollar-pegged stablecoin USD Coin (USDC), has added support for Apple Pay — with the intention of bringing the crypto and traditional payment systems closer together.

Circle made the announcement in a Nov. 15 blog post, suggesting it may boost sales for crypto-native businesses as they can facilitate traditional payments from non-crypto-using customers while enabling customers to “buy crypto with Apple Pay on their preferred exchange.”

According to Circle, the addition of Apple Pay support will benefit traditional businesses by allowing them “to shift more retail payments to digital currency.”

Apple Pay is available to “eligible businesses” and claims to enable it is “a simple process.” Meanwhile, customers who checkout with Apple Pay at participating firms will finalize the transaction, as usual, using Apple’s Face ID or Touch ID.

Apple has over 1.8 billion active devices worldwide Apple’s CEO Tim Cook claimed in a Q1 2022 earnings call. Apple Pay is one of the most used digital wallets in the United States behind PayPal, according to reports.

Related: Apple job listings and patents hint at foray into ‘3D mixed-reality world’

USDC has the second largest market cap within the stablecoin market, surpassed only by Tether (USDT), which in the wake of the FTX downfall, stoked fear in investors after it depegged slightly from USD.

In an interview with Cointelegraph, Circle’s vice president of product, Joao Reginatto, mentioned that they envision the future will be a “multichain world” soon after Circle’s announcement on Sept. 28 that they would roll out its stablecoin across Polkadot, Optimism, Near Protocol, Arbitrum and Cosmos blockchains.

Both Tether and Circle have denied having any exposure to FTX and Alameda as contagion from the fallout of one of the former-largest crypto exchanges in the world spreads throughout the industry.

FTX ex-exec floats ‘cool token’ idea amid warning rebound may take years

Zane Tackett suggests alternatives to “boomer procedures” when it comes to FTX’s bankruptcy.

Bitcoin (BTC) and cryptocurrency may “take years to recover” from the FTX scandal, one industry analyst warns.

In a Twitter thread on Nov. 11, Filbfilb, co-founder of trading suite DecenTrader, said that the Terra debacle was itself still playing out.

Filbfilb: “I’ve never seen such a debacle”

The crypto industry is experiencing “a clear case of what goes up must come down,” Filbfilb summarized.

As the fallout from FTX and Alameda Research only begins to become apparent, many industry businesses and associated tokens have been left reduced to a shadow of their former selves.

Amid bankruptcy concerns from those with exposure to FTX and investigations from regulators, the outlook looks bleak for the industry’s reputation.

For Filbfilb, FTX–Alameda is itself a product of the implosion of Terra, Three Arrows Capital and others earlier this year.

“1) Most of this all links back to the first 3 AC / Celius meltdown,” he began.

He highlighted two other key causes:

“2) Businesses in the space compounded their aspirations based on supernormal, parabolic industry growth. 3) Cash is king; cash flows of many entities are down to the tune of 80%.”

The situation is in fact all too familiar; overly eager businesses create an ecosystem on steroids, which grows too quickly and takes on too much risk.

“Price, users, cashflow and compounded, cross-collateralized businesses using rapidly declining assets as balance sheet assets with future obligations works when price go up — its suicide when the tide goes out,” Filbfilb continued.

As such, for the cycle not to repeat itself, it may take “many years” of restructuring.

“So yes, im annoyed about the whole thing, ive never seen such a debacle, i understand why we are where we are but it is inexcusable by some of the people involved and they need to be held to account,” he concluded.

FTX ex-sales head shuns bankruptcy “boomer procedures”

Feelings are tense for countless investors and businesses with funds tied up in now-frozen FTX accounts.

Related: Hodlers in loss sit on 50% of BTC supply after $5.7K Bitcoin price dip

On Nov. 11, Zane Tackett, the exchange’s former head of international sales, confirmed rough liabilities totaled -$8.8 billion.

In a Twitter thread of his own, he quizzed users on whether FTX should create a “cool token” as a way of restructuring debt instead of filing for bankruptcy in the traditional manner, something he called “boomer procedures.”

“There’s no way to paint a pretty image out of these numbers, but when I saw the balance sheet this evening i thought it was going to be much worse,” he revealed.

“Now, granted, there’s a massive hole in liquid assets, there is a pretty big chunk of change in the ventures portfolio.”

Less than an hour after publication, the survey had accrued 3,100 responses, with 71% calling for token creation.

Twitter survey (screenshot). Source: Zane Tackett/Twitter

Such a move would be similar to that of fellow exchange Bitfinex, which, in 2016, released its UNUS SED LEO (LEO) token after it was hacked for $70 million in BTC.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

BlockFi limits platform activity, including a halt on client withdrawals

“We intend to communicate as frequently as possible […] but anticipate that this will be less frequent than what our clients and other stakeholders are used to.”

Crypto lender BlockFi has halted client withdrawals on its platform as part of a broader limit on platform activity in the wake of FTX’s collapse.

The company said in a Nov. 11 tweet that a “lack of clarity on the status of FTX.com, FTX US and Alameda” has prevented it from being able to operate as normal.

As a result, it has limited platform activity until there is further clarity on the developing situation, it said. 

The firm has also requested that clients do not deposit to BlockFi wallets or Interest Accounts at this point in time.

It comes only days after a Twitter thread in which BlockFi founder and chief operating officer Flori Marquez on Nov. 8 assuring users that all BlockFi products were fully operational, as they have a $400 million line of credit from FTX US, which is a separate entity from the one affected by a liquidity crunch.

Marquez’s comment that BlockFi “will remain an independent entity until at least July 2023” is likely a reference to the deal with FTX US that provided them with the line of credit, in which FTX US was provided an option to acquire BlockFi for a variable price up to $240 million. 

However, recent developments from FTX US, in which a banner at the top of the FTX US website said “trading may be halted on FTX US in a few days,” has raised questions about the financial impact the fallout of FTX has had on its United States arm.

Related: FTX US resigns from the Crypto Council for Innovation

The crypto community has not taken well to the abrupt change in language coming out of BlockFi, who had just 12 hours earlier assured customers that “all crypto transactions, including withdrawals, would continue as normal.” 

Kevin Paffrath, CEO of HouseHack and a YouTuber with 1.85 million subscribers, pointed out a similar u-turn in Sam Bankman-Fried’s public comments in the lead-up to the FTX fallout.


Solana TVL drops 32.4% as FTX turmoil rocks ecosystem

Cryptocurrencies understood to have exposure to Sam Bankman-Fried, FTX and Alameda Research appear to have been impacted the most.

The total value locked (TVL) on the Solana chain has plummeted 32.4% in the last 24 hours, as news stemming from the collapse of FTX has sent waves through the crypto ecosystem. 

According to DefiLlama, at the time of writing, Solana’s TVL has fallen to $423.68 million, down 32.4% in the last 24 hours, a far cry from its all-time-high (ATH) of $10.17 billion on Nov. 9, 2021.

Total value locked within the Solana ecosystem Source: DefiLlama

TVL measures the total value of all assets locked into decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols. As TVL increases, that means more coins are deposited within the DeFi protocols and can indicate bullish sentiment, while a falling TVL shows that investors are pulling their funds out of the ecosystem for one reason or another.

The fall in TVL went as far as a 51.7% decline over 24 hours, however, but slightly corrected leading up to the writing of this article.

The Solana-based liquid staking protocol Marinade Finance has seen the biggest loss in TVL on the chain, having fallen 35.1% to $115.79 million within the last 24 hours.

Other major protocols on Solana have seen similar decreases over the last 24 hours, with automated market maker Raydium down 34.25%, liquid staking protocol Lido down 43.13% and lending protocol Solend down 63.07%.

Other leading blockchains have also seen decreases in TVL over the same time period, with Ethereum down 10.59%, BNB Chain down 9.68% and Tron down 8.84%.

Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), the founder of FTX and crypto hedge fund Alameda Research, had been an early investor in Solana though Alameda Research and cryptocurrencies exposed to SBF’s companies have been the hardest hit by the fallout.

Solana (SOL) has also dropped heavily compared to its competitors, with the price falling 40.53% to $13.38 over the last 24 hours.

The token had briefly risen after news that Binance might end up acquiring FTX but dropped after Binance backed out of the deal, citing allegations of consumer funds being mishandled and an investigation from regulators.

Related: Solana’s co-founder addresses the blockchain’s reliability at Breakpoint

Despite the recent challenges facing SOL, co-founder of Solana Labs Anatoly Yakovenko has reiterated his bullish stance on the network despite recent losses. 

He pointed to the quality of builders and recent network-level improvements as big positives in a Nov. 9 tweet.

Throughout Solana’s annual conference, a range of announcements were made including a partnership with Google Cloud, the launch of the Solana App Store and an upcoming smartphone.

Alameda Research and FTX merge VC operations: Report

Alameda’s investment arm, FTX Ventures, and crypto exchange FTX will reportedly continue to operate independently from each other.

The investment arm of Sam Bankman-Fried’s cryptocurrency exchange, FTX, has reportedly absorbed the venture capital operations of Alameda Research in response to the ongoing crypto bear market.

According to a Thursday Bloomberg report, Alameda’s Caroline Ellison said in an interview that the merger had happened prior to former co-CEO Sam Trabucco announcing his resignation on Wednesday, leaving Ellison as the firm’s sole CEO. The investment arm of the crypto exchange, FTX Ventures, launched in January — when the absorption of Alameda reportedly began — with $2 billion in assets under management.

Amy Wu, who runs the VC fund, reportedly said there were no payments made as part of the deal, and Alameda’s investment arm was entirely under FTX Ventures, with the two operating independently from each other and the crypto exchange. According to Wu, the two firms were still running at “arm’s length,” with the Alameda team not “working too much on the venture side day-to-day.”

Related: SBF and Alameda step in to prevent crypto collapse contagion

In July, Voyager Digital rejected a joint offer from FTX and Alameda to buy out its crypto assets and outstanding loans as part of its bankruptcy proceedings. The firm’s legal team said, at the time, that the proposed acquisition could “harm customers.” Alameda has made its own offerings, including backing crypto custody firm Anchorage Digital.

Ellison reportedly said Alameda would consider continuing to offer bailouts to crypto firms hurting for liquidity amid a bear market. She added that “the more systemically important someone is, the more important it would be to try to support them.”

Voyager rejects Alameda buyout offer as it ‘harms customers’

The buyout proposal from Alameda and FTX seems to have upset Voyager’s lawyers, who do not see the offer as a serious one that would benefit its users.

Centralized crypto lender Voyager Digital Holdings has rejected an offer from FTX and its investment arm Alameda Ventures to buyout its digital assets on the grounds that the actions “are not value-maximizing” and potentially “harms customers.” 

In a rejection letter filed in court on July 24 as part of its ongoing bankruptcy proceedings, Voyager’s lawyers denounced the offer made public by FTX, FTX US, and Alameda on July 22 to buy out all of Voyager’s assets and outstanding loans – except the defaulted loan to 3AC.

The letter states that making such offers public could jeopardize any other potential deals by subverting “a coordinated, confidential, competitive bidding process,” adding “AlamedaFTX violated many obligations to the Debtors and the Bankruptcy Court.”

Voyager’s representatives suggested that their own proposed plan to reorganize the company is better as they say it would promptly deliver all of their customers’ cash and as much of their crypto as possible.

Voyager filed for bankruptcy on July 5 in the Southern District of New York for insolvency worth more than $1 billion after crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC) defaulted on a $650 million loan from the firm.

On July 22, the three companies tied to FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried offered Voyager a deal that would see Alameda would assume all of Voyager’s assets and use FTX or FTX US to sell and disperse them proportionally to users affected by the bankruptcy.

In FTX’s press release, Bankman-Fried said that his proposal was a way for Voyager users to recover their losses and move on from the platform:

“Voyager’s customers did not choose to be bankruptcy investors holding unsecured claims. The goal of our joint proposal is to help establish a better way to resolve an insolvent crypto business.”

Bankman-Fried doubled-down on his firms’ reasoning for proposing to acquire Voyager in a Twitter thread late on July 24. He stated that Voyager’s customers have “been through enough already,” and should be able to claim their assets if they want them sooner than later because bankruptcy proceedings “can take years.”

On Sunday, Voyager’s lawyers said the deal, which purports to make Voyager users whole, is essentially just a liquidation of Voyager’s assets “on a basis that advantages AlamedaFTX.”

It also outlined six ways in which the proposal could “harm customers”, including capital gains tax consequences, unfairly capping the value of each Voyager user’s account at their July 5 value, and the effective elimination of the VGX token, which would “destroy in excess of $100 million in value immediately.”

“The AlamedaFTX proposal is nothing more than a liquidation of cryptocurrency on a basis that advantages AlamedaFTX. It’s a low-ball bid dressed up as a white knight rescue.”

The letter also refuted speculation that AlamedaFTX had a greater chance of winning acquisition bids due to ongoing relationships between the two firms, stating: “Nothing could be further from the truth as evidenced by this response.”

Bankman-Fried, has been at the center of other acquisition talks in the midst of a dramatic bear market. On July 1, CEO of another centralized crypto lender BlockFi’s Zac Prince penned a deal for FTX to send $240 million in credit to the firm, with a buyout option worth a total of $640 million.

Related: SBF: Crypto winter winding down, FTX to turn a profit as it serves as lender of last resort

On July 20, Cointelegraph reported that Bankman-Fried was seeking $400 million in funding for FTX and FTX US to bring their valuations to $32 billion and $8 billion respectively. The new funding rounds are expected to support acquisitions of other crypto firms.

Voyager rejects Alameda buyout offer, as it ‘harms customers’

The buyout proposal from Alameda and FTX seems to have upset Voyager’s lawyers, who do not see the offer as a serious one that would benefit its users.

Centralized crypto lender Voyager Digital Holdings has rejected an offer from FTX and its investment arm Alameda Ventures to buy out its digital assets on the grounds that the actions “are not value-maximizing” and potentially “harms customers.”

In a rejection letter filed in court on Sunday as part of its ongoing bankruptcy proceedings, Voyager’s lawyers denounced the offer made public by FTX, FTX US and Alameda on Friday to buy out all of Voyager’s assets and outstanding loans — except the defaulted loan to Three Arrows Capital (3AC).

The letter states that making such offers public could jeopardize any other potential deals by subverting “a coordinated, confidential, competitive bidding process,” adding that “AlamedaFTX violated many obligations to the Debtors and the Bankruptcy Court.”

Voyager’s representatives suggested that their own proposed plan to reorganize the company is better as they say it would promptly deliver all of their customers’ cash and as much of their crypto as possible.

Voyager filed for bankruptcy on July 5 in the Southern District of New York for insolvency worth more than $1 billion after crypto hedge fund 3AC defaulted on a $650 million loan from the firm.

On Friday, the three companies tied to FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried offered Voyager a deal that would see Alameda would assume all of Voyager’s assets and use FTX or FTX US to sell and disperse them proportionally to users affected by the bankruptcy.

In FTX’s press release, Bankman-Fried said that his proposal was a way for Voyager users to recover their losses and move on from the platform:

“Voyager’s customers did not choose to be bankruptcy investors holding unsecured claims. The goal of our joint proposal is to help establish a better way to resolve an insolvent crypto business.”

Bankman-Fried doubled down on his firm’s reasoning for proposing to acquire Voyager in a Twitter thread late on Sunday. He stated that Voyager’s customers have “been through enough already,” and should be able to claim their assets if they want them sooner than later because bankruptcy proceedings “can take years.”

On Sunday, Voyager’s lawyers said the deal, which purports to make Voyager users whole, is essentially just a liquidation of Voyager’s assets “on a basis that advantages AlamedaFTX.”

It also outlined six ways in which the proposal could “harm customers”, including capital gains tax consequences, unfairly capping the value of each Voyager user’s account at their July 5 value, and the effective elimination of the VGX token, which would “destroy in excess of $100 million in value immediately:”

“The AlamedaFTX proposal is nothing more than a liquidation of cryptocurrency on a basis that advantages AlamedaFTX. It’s a low-ball bid dressed up as a white knight rescue.”

The letter also refuted speculation that AlamedaFTX had a greater chance of winning acquisition bids due to ongoing relationships between the two firms, stating: “Nothing could be further from the truth as evidenced by this response.”

Bankman-Fried has been at the center of other acquisition talks in the midst of a dramatic bear market. On July 1, CEO of another centralized crypto lender BlockFi Zac Prince penned a deal for FTX to send $240 million in credit to the firm, with a buyout option worth a total of $640 million.

Related: SBF: Crypto winter winding down, FTX to turn a profit as it serves as lender of last resort

On July 20, Cointelegraph reported that Bankman-Fried was seeking $400 million in funding for FTX and FTX US to bring their valuations to $32 billion and $8 billion, respectively. The new funding rounds are expected to support acquisitions of other crypto firms.