Sam Bankman-Fried, the fallen crypto entrepreneur who faces trial in the United States on fraud charges, reiterated his claim that the FTX US crypto exchange “was and is solvent.”
In a statement on Substack on Tuesday, he said that FTX US likely has “hundreds of millions of dollars in excess of customer balances.” The 30-year-old also referenced the Substack post on his Twitter account.
The FTX Debtors group as part of the exchange’s bankruptcy process said earlier Tuesday “there is a substantial shortfall of digital assets at both” FTX.com and FTX US. Bankman-Fried in his more than 1,000-word statement argued they had made a mistake in their tally of assets.
Bankman-Fried is on bail and wearing an electronic monitoring bracelet while living at his parents’ home in California. He faces trial in October after pleading not guilty to fraud and campaign finance law charges.
Prosecutors allege he’s behind one of the biggest scams in U.S. history after fraudulently raising $1.8 billion from investors under the guise of FTX having appropriate controls and risk management. He’s also accused of misusing customer funds at FTX to cover personal expenses, real estate purchases and trading at the now-collapsed Alameda.
FTX Debtors said a total of approximately $5.5 billion of liquid assets have been identified, comprised of $1.7 billion of cash, $3.5 billion of crypto assets and $300 million of securities.
