The chief executive of crypto exchange platform FTX says that the bailout efforts within the crypto industry so far have been lackluster.
In a new interview on Decrypt’s GM Podcast, FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried says that other crypto firms need to step up and help him bail out ailing digital assets companies.
“The most important thing that we can do is to make sure we stem the contagion and to protect customer assets. Frankly, I would love it if other people did that. I don’t want to be the person doing that, and I would be super happy if others took that on instead of me.
The reason why I have been doing it is because it doesn’t seem to me that there are others stepping up and doing that.”
The billionaire then says that his efforts to get others within the crypto industry to join in on the bailouts were rebuffed.
“On all of these sort of bailout things we’ve tried, we reached out to everyone we could to assist us, and said ‘hey, you guys interested in working with us on this?’ In general ‘no’ was the answer, or rather, ‘yes’ followed by ‘wait, that company looks like there might be a hole in the balance sheet and maybe there was some mismanagement.’
And we’re sort of like ‘I don’t know what you’re expecting dude, why do you think they’re looking for a bailout?’”
The CEO then says he’s disappointed in the industry for not stepping up to help out ailing companies in need.
“Our sense has been that there, to a disappointing extent, haven’t been that many people who have actually been game to pitch in. And we think that the most important thing is that one way or another, these holes [get] plugged, and we’ll do it if no one else will, and we think that’s the right thing to do.”
Earlier this year, FTX spent hundreds of millions of dollars propping up crypto businesses such as digital assets lender BlockFi.
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