FTX hacker may be a former employee, says Sam Bankman-Fried

Ex-FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried said the exchange’s hacker might be a former employee.

The crypto exchange lost $650 million in a hack a few hours after it filed for bankruptcy.

FTX was prioritising Bahamian withdrawals, SBF added.

FTX lost $650 million in a hack after filing for bankruptcy

Troubled cryptocurrency exchange FTX revealed that it lost $650 million in a hack a few hours after filing for bankruptcy. 

During an exclusive interview with Tiffany Fong a few hours ago, former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried revealed that the hacker might be a former employee. He stated that;

“I’ve narrowed it down to like eight people. I don’t know which one it was. It was either a former FTX employee or someone who installed malware on a former employee’s computer.”

Prior to losing access to FTX’s systems, SBF said he was working hard to determine who moved the hundreds of millions of dollars from FTX’s accounts without company approval. He said;

“I don’t know exactly who because they shut off access to the systems when I was halfway through exploring it.”

FTX had asked the judge handling the bankruptcy case to allow it to hire BitGo to safeguard its assets during the bankruptcy proceedings. This is to ensure that the company’s assets are protected against hacks. 

FTX’s collapse was driven by the sell-off of FTT tokens

He added that the collapse of FTX was driven by a massive sell-off of its FTT token, which was primarily driven by fear. SBF added that FTX was processing withdrawals for its users in the Bahamas since it is the country the crypto exchange was incorporated. He said;

“It was critical to the exchange being able to have a future. You do not want to be in a country with a lot of angry people in it. The pathway forward for FTX involved Bahamians not being pissed at it,”

However, SBF admitted that processing withdrawals for users in the Bahamas and not other places was not a nice move on the part of the cryptocurrency exchange. The former FTX CEO denied allegations that he built a back door into FTX’s system that allowed him to move $10 billion to sister company Alameda Research. He concluded;

“I don’t even know how to code. I literally never opened the codebase for any of FTX.”