Sam Bankman-Fried Reveals Plans to Launch New Business After FTX Collapse

Then-CEO of FTX Sam Bankman-Fried testifies during a hearing before the House Financial Services Committee on Capitol Hill, in Washington, on Dec. 8, 2021. Alex Wong/Getty Images

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried has revealed plans to start a new business venture just weeks after his cryptocurrency exchange spectacularly collapsed.

In an interview with the BBC published on Saturday, the 30-year-old—who is facing a number of civil lawsuits brought against both him and his failed company—said he would “give anything” to be able to set up a new business in an effort to pay back investors.

“I would give anything to be able to do that. And I’m going to try if I can,” Bankman-Fried said when asked if he planned to launch a new company to recoup the losses by FTX and pay back investors and users who have lost millions.

“I’m going to be thinking about how we can help the world and if users haven’t gotten much back, I’m going to be thinking about what I can do for them,” he said. “And I think at the very least, I have a duty to FTX users to do right by them as best as I can.”

FTX was once valued at $32 billion after raising $400 million from investors before it collapsed in November amid a liquidity crisis worsened further by larger rival Binance deciding to pull out of a potential rescue deal.

Traders soon pulled billions from the platform and the company ultimately filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Nov. 11. Millions of FTX users have been left unable to access their crypto wallets.

Bankman-Fried to Testify Before Congress

Questions have been raised regarding the roughly $1 billion of customer funds that appear to have vanished from the failed crypto exchange. Meanwhile, Bankman-Fried claims to have just $100,000 left in his bank account and denies having “hidden funds” anywhere.

On Friday, Bankman-Fried confirmed that he will testify before the U.S. Senate Banking Committee on Tuesday amid multiple probes into FTX’s collapse as well as that of its sister hedge fund, Alameda Research.

However, the former billionaire claimed he does not have access to much of his professional or personal data, and therefore “there is a limit to what I will be able to say, and I won’t be as helpful as I'd like.”

Speaking to the BBC from a luxury apartment in the Bahamas owned by FTX, Bankman-Fried was asked whether he was prepared for the possibility of being arrested, to which he replied, “There’s some time at night ruminating, yes, but when I get up during the day, I try and focus, be as productive as I can and ignore things that are out of my control.”

However, the crypto firm founder doubled down on comments he made during the New York Times DealBook Summit on Nov. 30, in which he denied having committed any fraud at FTX.

Financial regulators and authorities in both the United States and the Bahamas are currently investigating the collapse of the company.