The philanthropic effort created by the troubled crypto exchange FTX has detailed it is sunsetting operations and told the community that members were “shocked and immensely saddened” by the turn of events that transpired around the trading platform.
Sam Bankman-Fried’s philanthropic efforts undermined by FTX collapse, plans to ‘do unbelievably good things’ shaken
While FTX was at one time valued at $32 billion, crypto exchange executives spent significant amounts of money donating to various causes. For example, FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) donated a lot of money to Democratic Super PACs and US President Joe Biden. SBF’s mother, Barbara Fried, co-founded the political fundraising organization Mind the Gap. His mother also co-founded the Center for Voter Information, a get-out-the-vote (GOTV) organization.
SBF claimed to be about altruism, in fact, he and his inner circle of ten living in a Bahamas condo are allegedly proponents of “effective altruism.” “For many of my friends their answer is to do unbelievably good things for the world just by working — choosing which organizations to work with and directly impacting important things,” SBF told Forbes in an interview earlier this year.
FTX started a philanthropy fund and formed a team called the FTX Foundation to spread grants for philanthropic efforts. On November 10, 2022, however, FTX Foundation officials said it was closing shop, and that they were disappointed by FTX’s failure.
“We were shocked and immensely saddened to learn of the recent events at FTX,” the FTX Foundation wrote. “Our hearts go out to the thousands of FTX customers whose finances may have been jeopardized or destroyed.”
FTX Foundation officials said:
We are now unable to process our work or grants, and we have fundamental questions about the legality and integrity of the business operations that fund the FTX Foundation and the Future Fund. As a result, we resigned earlier today.
Following the FTX Foundation shutdown, the next day, FTX parent firm West Realm Shires Services, Alameda Research, and approximately 130 additional affiliated companies filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Delaware.
