that is why we started ftx, to harness the possibility of this digital asset world. bankman fried s ftx was a giant of the cryptocurrency industry. the exchange allowed people to trade their normal money for digital tokens like bitcoin. but last month, it was revealed ftx and bankman fried s separate company, alameda research, were financially unstable. everything came crashing down, billions of dollars are now missing, more than a million people out of pocket. it s alleged that the alameda hedge fund was using ftx customer money that should have been secured. until very recently, this was the headquarters of the $32 billion ftx empire. we have spoken to a former senior employee of the company who worked here with sam bankman fried. he is furious at how the ceo has handled the collapse, but also about what he is saying right now. he says you are lying, he says that you knew about it, and that it is impossible, he says, for you not to know
that means selling assets, businesses or entirely restructuring. we are going to be looking out for different motions they are bringing to the floor to keep the day-to-day operations afloat. what about the senate hearing on ftx? what are they looking into? that s the first attempt by lawmakers to see what led to the sudden collapse of the world s biggest crypto exchange, and the first witness is the chairman of the u.s. commodities trading commission, and he has been vocal about his experience with sam bankman-fried. he pointed out one of the few ftx owned properties that didn t go bankrupt, was licensed. and on monday it was the regulated entities under the ftx empire that were able to weather
he s already made an enormous impact and has been seen as a bit of a rock star in the crypto currency world, frankly. and he d even been compared to warren buffett and often sat before panels and sat before regulators and been seen as the spokesperson for the industry. i m afraid, again, that reputation no longer stands and it s pretty much in tatters and his ftx empire has essentially collapsed. just to give you a sense of the scale of that, back on monday as recently as monday, it was estimated he was right around $15 billion whereas now emma bloomberg is estimating he s worth just $3. a massive change in his fortunes there. he has been quite outspoken about what s been going on for the past few days. i should been going on for the past few days. ishould be been going on for the past few days. i should be able to show you a tweet. he wrote in that tweet. he has been taking and acknowledging responsibility.