Crypto meltdown

FTX underlines the risk of unregulated markets

The meltdown of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange has set some sort of record in terms of sheer speed. It may put more pressure on an already bearish cryptocurrency market. A week or so ago, the founder of FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), was reckoned to be worth several billion due to his holdings in FTX and in crypto hedge fund Alameda Research. In the wake of the bankruptcy, SBF’s fortune has just evaporated and he may also be criminally liable. In January this year, FTX had over a million registered users. It was the second-largest crypto-trading exchange trading billions of dollars daily. Apart from trades in over 80 cryptocurrencies, it offered popular, innovative derivatives such as perpetual futures, and bets on real-world events like elections. It also used to issue a cryptocurrency FTT, run on an Ethereum blockchain. FTT could be redeemed in fiat. It saw rapid value inflation and rising popularity because FTT-denominated trades received big discounts on service charges.

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