During his recent interview with the New York Times, Sam Bankman-Fried used the phrase "run on the bank" to describe his massive swindle—suggesting FTX's collapse occurred as a result of an unexpected swing in the market, which caused customers to panic. The comparison suggests the entire mess can be blamed on bad luck and his failure to respond fast enough.
This is absurd, but media outlets from CNN to the Verge have since latched on to the "run on the bank" phrase in their accounts of FTX's collapse. This is unfortunate since it portrays Bankman-Fried as a young scamp who got in over his head and then got wiped out by unanticipated market forces—a very different moral calculus than saying the FTX cynically looted customers' money until SBF was exposed. The media echoing his "run on the bank" explanation is clearly what Bankman-Fried is hoping for as he tries to persuade prosecutors and politicians that he was incompetent and not evil.
