Sam Bankman-Fried says he will testify before congressional committee

Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) confirmed he is willing to testify in front of the House Committee on Financial Services in Washington D.C. next Wednesday.

"I still do not have access to much of my data -- professional or personal. So there is a limit to what I will be able to say, and I won't be as helpful as I'd like," he Tweeted, adding: "But as the committee still thinks it would be useful, I am willing to testify on the 13th."

He added in a tweet thread that he would try to give details on FTX US's solvency and American customers, pathways that could return value to users internationally, what he thinks led to the crash and his own failings.

"I had thought of myself as a model CEO, who wouldn't become lazy or disconnected. Which made it that much more destructive when I did," he wrote. "I'm sorry. Hopefully people can learn from the difference between who I was and who I could have been."

The Senate had demanded he testify, but had been left with a pregnant silence up until now. A letter sent by senators threatened Bankman-Fried with a congressional subpoena if he refused to cooperate. The deadline for his response was set for 5pm ET yesterday.

The embattled crypto mogul has given several media interviews since the collapse of his company, detailing his version of the story, but punted on an earlier invitation from the House Financial Services Committee, saying he wanted to wait until he had "finished learning and reviewing what happened" to the companies he ran and owns.