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Crypto influencers on the stake-out for ex-CEO Sam Bankman-Fried after FTX collapse

Crypto influencers have been flying out to the Bahamas to investigate the FTX collapse of one of the biggest crypto exchanges in the world.

By Shradhra Menon

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FTX Collapse

Even if you’re not interested in Cryptocurrency, chances are, you probably have heard about the FTX collapse. It’s taken the crypto world, banking segments, and legislators by storm by being the pinnacle talking point about the vulnerability of unregulated world currencies. The collapse of FTX not only exposed the cracks of crypto but demonstrates to the world the dangers and high risks to private investors being involved in a volatile financial industry.

FTX is a Bahamas-based crypto exchange founded in 2019. Users were allowed to exchange, buy, and sell currencies, as well as buy and sell NFTs. What made FTX attractive to investors was that it was decentralized from national reserve banks, operating without the rules and regulations implemented by authorities for the safe-keeping of investments. One of the main draws of FTX was that it had extremely low trading fees.  The exchange used a tiered fee structure based on your trading volume, and the highest fee amount was 0.20%. Overall, those rates were far better than what many of the best cryptocurrency exchanges charge in general, which meant crypto users were able to save money while trading on FTX.

Popular crypto-influencer BitBoy Crypto, real name Ben Armstrong, who has more than 1.45 million YouTube subscribers wanted to take matters into his own hands by uncovering the truth behind the FTX collapse. Over the past few days, Armstrong has been in the Bahamas in order to talk to FTX’s ex-CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, and has even shared photos of him camping out of Bankman-Fried’s house.

FTX collapse sparked global outrage as many crypto influencers expose ex-CEO Sam Bankman-Fried for fraud and placing legitimate cryptocurrencies in a bad light

BitBoy Crypto was fast to react and expose the fraudulent truths behind the mal-managed FTX collapse by producing a variety of video content to distance the potential of crypto in general from that of FTX.

Armstrong has garnered much online support from the Crypto-twitter space, where he’s received positive feedback from users commemorating his ventures but in the same breathe has swallowed his fair share of hate tweets. He has been frequently interacting with users on Twitter and posting live updates, wherein the most recent update, Armstrong was live-streaming himself entering the perimeter where the luxurious penthouse of FTX was headquartered prior to its collapse.

The live stream showed him and his team eventually being escorted out of the property by security guards. Armstrong has also recently been in an online feud with Kevin O’Leary, Mr. Wonderful of Shark Tank, on matters regarding FTX and Sam Bankman-Fried.

In addition, another crypto influencer on YouTube, Gabriel Haines, with more than 8.47k subscribers, made a series of videos regarding Sam and the FTX collapse. He managed to successfully crowdfund $10,000 in Ethereum to be able to fly himself and his family to the Bahamas in search of Sam Bankman-Fried. His intention was to create videos that could possibly unearth more information and solve some of the major frustrations that the crypto-community has on this issue. As of 27th November, the crowdfund exceeded its donation and now rests at 102%.  

The collapse of FTX has been so severe that the firm filed for voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings in the US Courts system. Sam Bankman-Fried even took the blame for some of the company’s failures as he tweeted out, ‘I messed up.’ He even added that Alameda Research, a quantitative trading firm co-founded by him, would no longer be trading in FTX.

In addition, the United States House Committee on Financial Services is looking to hold hearings and gather testimonies from Bankman-Fried and others to address the millions of investors’ dollars lost during the scandalous collapse. Furthermore, the Royal Bahamas Police Force has opened a criminal investigation to check for any illegal trading.

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