New York Times lambasted for hosting FTX founder at conference
THE New York Times has come under fire for hosting the founder of the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX at a high-profile conference.
Sam Bankman-fried is listed as a guest speaker at The New York Times Dealbook Summit on Nov 30, which charges $2,500 (£2,100) for a ticket.
In a tweet on Wednesday, Mr Bankman-fried confirmed he would turn up in person to speak at the event.
The announcement sparked a backlash from parts of the crypto industry, which has been plunged into turmoil after the collapse of FTX and the loss of billions of dollars in customer funds.
Mr Bankman-fried has faced personal criticism for his role in the saga, with administrators saying the cryptocurrency exchange’s financial records were worse than Enron, whose bankruptcy wiped the company’s $60bn valuation to zero and triggered the collapse of global audit firm Arthur Andersen.
Scores of Twitter users took aim at The New York Times for pushing ahead with the appearance, while Elon Musk tweeted: “Is this really still happening?”
Mr Musk later announced that the platform would offer a “general amnesty” to suspended accounts that had not “broken the law or engaged in egregious spam” after launching a Twitter poll.
“The people have spoken. Amnesty begins next week. Vox Populi, Vox Dei,” he said. The Latin phrase means “the voice of the people is the voice of God”.
Meanwhile, David Sacks, a long-time ally of Mr Musk and former Paypal executive, tweeted: “For years, the elite media has treated every successful tech start-up as if it’s a fraud that needs to be exposed. But when the mother of all frauds actually comes along, they minimise and cover for it.”
Andrew Ross Sorkin, The New York Times columnist who manages the annual conference, defended his decision to interview Mr Bankman-fried.
He wrote on Twitter: “There are a lot of important questions to be asked and answered. Nothing is off limits. Looking forward to it…”
The newspaper published the first interview with Mr Bankman-fried since his fall from grace, but it was criticised for failing to confront the crypto boss about allegations that funds were illegally moved between his companies.
US bankruptcy filings have revealed that the collapse of FTX left around one million creditors, with tens of thousands of British traders out of pocket.
Mr Bankman-fried is now under investigation by the US Department of Justice and financial regulators.
The FTX founder is due to appear alongside a host of other big-name speakers at the conference, including Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon boss Andy Jassy and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky.
A spokesman for the New York Times said: “The Dealbook Summit has long convened the most newsworthy figures of the moment in business, policy, and culture. The role of journalism is to ask questions and seek answers on behalf of the public, and we look forward to conducting this important and newsworthy conversation.”
BINANCE, the cryptocurrency exchange, has unveiled a $1bn (£820m) “crypto recovery fund” as its chief executive pledges to help troubled companies after the collapse of FTX.
Changpeng Zhao, the founder of Binanace, said he is leading a funding round to buy out collapsed exchanges, something a finance expert described as a move to turn his exchange into crypto’s version of Amazon.
“We are going with a loose approach where different industry players will contribute as they wish,” Mr Zhao told Bloomberg.
Mr Zhao said he wants to help limit recent damage to the cryptocurrency sector, although his own statements could be seen as having contributed to its recent woes.
At the start of this month he posted messages on Twitter signalling a plan to sell $530m of cryptocurrency tokens from rival exchange FTX, run by Sam Bankman-fried.
The resulting market storm led to FTX filing for bankruptcy protection in the United States.
In a since-deleted tweet yesterday, Mr Zhao appeared to call into doubt the quantity of Bitcoin held by rival exchange Coinbase, sharing a link to a blog post.
In a follow-up message Mr Zhao said, referring to the chief executive of Coinbase: “Brian Armstrong just told me the numbers in the articles are wrong. Deleted the previous tweet.
Let’s work together to improve transparency in the industry.”
Binance has emerged as one of the cryptocurrency sector’s largest players following the implosion of FTX, which left 80,000 UK investors out of pocket.
The rescue fund is not the only billion-dollar initiative Binance has produced. Last October, it unveiled a $1bn fund aimed at fast-tracking adoption of “digital assets” and related technology.
Signs of nervousness are beginning to show in the cryptocurrency sector. Figures from digital asset tracking company Tradingview suggest the total market cap of global cryptocurrencies – the face value of digital tokens, expressed in real-world currency – has dropped by more than a third over the past six months.