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FTX Wikipedia Article
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3/5
Good(3)Good quality. Reputable source with community review or editorial standards, but less rigorous than peer-reviewed venues.
Rating inherited from publication venue: Wikipedia
Relevant to AI safety community as SBF and FTX were major EA-aligned funders of AI safety research; the collapse had significant reputational and financial consequences for several AI safety organizations and the broader longtermist movement.
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Importance: 35/100wiki pagereference
Summary
Wikipedia article on FTX Trading Ltd., the cryptocurrency exchange founded by Sam Bankman-Fried that collapsed in November 2022 following massive fraud. The collapse is notable in the AI safety context because SBF was a prominent EA/longtermist donor whose downfall significantly impacted AI safety funding and reputation.
Key Points
- •FTX was founded in 2019 by Sam Bankman-Fried and Gary Wang, reaching over one million users at its peak in July 2021.
- •The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in November 2022 after fraud by Bankman-Fried and Caroline Ellison was exposed.
- •SBF was a major funder of AI safety and effective altruism organizations, and FTX's collapse disrupted funding pipelines for these causes.
- •The scandal raised questions about the credibility of longtermist and EA-affiliated institutions that had accepted FTX funding.
- •John J. Ray III took over as CEO to manage bankruptcy proceedings, describing FTX's governance as among the worst he had seen.
Cited by 2 pages
| Page | Type | Quality |
|---|---|---|
| FTX Future Fund | Organization | 60.0 |
| FTX | Organization | 74.0 |
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FTX - Wikipedia
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange
For other uses, see FTX (disambiguation) .
FTX Trading Ltd. Company type Private Industry Cryptocurrency Founded May 2019 ; 6 years ago  ( 2019-05 ) Founders Sam Bankman-Fried
Gary Wang [ 1 ] Fate Filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in November 2022 Headquarters Nassau , New Providence , The Bahamas Key people John J. Ray III ( CEO ) [ 2 ] Products Cryptocurrency exchange
cryptocurrencies
Revenue US$ 1.02 billion (2021) [ 3 ] Operating income US$272 million (2021) [ 3 ] Net income US$388 million (2021) [ 3 ] Number of employees c.  300 (2022) [ 4 ]
FTX Trading Ltd. , trading as FTX (Futures Exchange), [ 5 ] is a bankrupt company that formerly operated a cryptocurrency exchange and crypto hedge fund . [ 6 ] [ 7 ] The exchange was founded in 2019 by Sam Bankman-Fried and Gary Wang and collapsed in 2022 after massive fraud perpetrated by Bankman-Fried and his partner Caroline Ellison forced the company to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy .
At its peak in July 2021, the company had over one million users and was the third-largest cryptocurrency exchange by volume, [ 8 ] [ 9 ] and its app was widely advertised as a "safe, easy way to get into crypto". As of November 2022, FTX was the third-largest digital currency exchange boasting an active trading volume of US$10 billion and a valuation of $32 billion. [ 10 ] FTX is incorporated in Antigua and Barbuda and headquartered in the Bahamas . [ 11 ] FTX is closely associated with FTX.US , a separate exchange available to US residents. [ 12 ]
Since November 11, 2022, FTX has been in Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings in the US court system. [ 13 ] [ 14 ] [ 15 ] [ 16 ] Public concern began with rumors of unethical and fraudulent inter-company transfers of client funds . In November 2022 CoinDesk also raised concerns stating that FTX's partner firm Alameda Research held a significant portion of its assets in FTX's native token (FTT). [ 17 ] [ 18 ] Following this revelation, rival exchange Binance 's CEO Changpeng Zhao announced that Binance would sell its holdings of the token, which was quickly followed by a spike in customer withdrawals from FTX. [ 19 ]
FTX was unable to meet the demand for customer withdrawals. [ 20 ] Binance signed a letter of intent to acquire the firm, with due diligence to follow, to ensure that customers could recover their assets from FTX in a timely manner, but Binance withdrew its offer the next day, citing reports of mishandled customer funds and U.S. agency investigations. [ 21 ] On December 12, 2022,
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