FTX's demise part 3: How Sam Bankman-Fried's crypto empire imploded

Episode 112 of Season 4 of The Scoop was recorded live with The Block's Frank Chaparro, F9 Research General Partner Jim Greco, and Crocodile Labs Founder Douglas Colkitt.

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In this breaking news episode of The Scoop, we continue our coverage of FTX’s demise with Jim Greco, a general partner at F9 Research, and Douglas Colkitt, founder of Crocodile Labs.

According to Greco, many market participants knew about the relationship between Alameda and FTX. Still, few thought former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried would risk jeopardizing the success of his exchange:

“Most professionals knew of the Alameda connection, but we all thought that this exchange is so valuable — it's worth $32 billion — why would he do something that would destroy the equity value in this exchange?” said Greco.

Not only did Bankman-Fried end up destroying the value of his exchange, but it’s now apparent that he did so in an effort to prop up Alameda’s unsuccessful trading operation, said Greco.

Colkitt added that recent events have shattered the perception that Alameda was one of the top performing firms in the space:

“Nobody really expected FTX to run out of money because they thought Alameda must be making so much money, but it's really quite the opposite — they just seemed so incompetent that even with all these advantages they were losing money,” said Colkitt.

During this episode Chaparro, Colkitt, and Greco also discuss:

• Whether or not the SEC protected U.S. investors
• Why FTX chose the Bahamas to set up shop
• How the industry rebuilds from here

This episode is brought to you by our sponsors Tron, Ledn
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