So, what WTF happened in crypto this week? Well, let me tell you.

1. What happened this week

2. What this means for crypto

3. What you can do

Billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried’s cryptocurrency empire is officially broken into two main parts: FTX (his exchange) and Alameda Research (his trading firm), both giants in their respective industries.

Alameda Research was founded by FTX CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried. Alameda holds Alameda holds $14.6 billion in assets with $8 billion in liabilities as of June 30, CoinDesk reported.

A breakdown of the report showed Alameda’s largest asset was about $3.66 billion of “unlocked FTT” and $2.16 billion of “FTT collateral.” (FTT is the token behind FTX.) This means the $5.82 billion in total FTT that Alameda owns is equal to 193% of the total known FTT market cap.

During the collapse of $LUNA and Terra, it appears that FTX had bailed out Alameda. Appear that Alameda went belly up in Q2 of 2022 along with 3AC and others. There is speculation that Alameda survived because it was able to secure funding from FTX using as “collateral” the 172M FTT that was guaranteed to vest 4 months later.

In 2019, Binance had invested as a shareholder in FTX. It exited that shareholding last year and received $2.1b in Binance’s own stablecoin ($BUSD) and in $FTT tokens as part of the deal. Receiving roughly $529M in $FTT, FTX’s token.

CZ, CEO of Binance, made the statement on November 6th that Binance would be liquidating an balances of $FTT.

With the illiquidity and fear of Binance selling, there was a major sell off of $FTT. has had a massive drop in price from $25 to less than $2 over the past week.

These liquidity concerns not only impact $FTT, but also FTX. So much so that customers also raced to pull out, and FTX saw an estimated $6 billion in withdrawals over the course of 72 hours, which it struggled to fulfill.

Now markets rallied when Bankman-Fried’s announcement on Tuesday, Nov. 8, that Binance would buy FTX, effectively bailing it out. Allowing customers to be able to receive their funds.

On Wednesday, Binance announced it was walking away from the deal, citing findings during due diligence, as well as reports of mishandled customer funds and the possibility of a federal investigation.

Strapped for cash, Bankman-Fried began calling other industry rivals, including Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, for a bailout — to no avail. On Friday, FTX filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and Bankman-Fried resigned as CEO.

In a series of tweets, Bankman-Fried said he “fucked up twice” and chalked up up FTX’s implosion to a combination of high customer withdrawals and his own incorrect estimates of how much debt FTX had taken on.

But a Reuters report suggested that there may be other factors at play. The news service, citing unnamed sources, said that earlier this year, Bankman-Fried transferred customer funds from FTX to Alameda without telling anyone, after Alameda was hit with a series of losses.

FTX’s new CEO, John Ray, confirms hack over $477M. Sources indicating the wallets part of the FTX “hack” are linked to Alameda Research.

BlockFi has frozen withdrawals. The company said in a post on Twitter it learned of the FTX news through Twitter and, due to the lack of clarity, would not be able to operate business as usual. Previously, FTX was set to acquire BlockFi, and FTX.US had extended BlockFi a $400 million line of credit.

Crypto.com reportedly sent sends 320,000 ETH ($400M) to the wrong address. They received around 90% of it back. They also published their reserves showing 20% of their reserves being in $SHIB.

Due to these concerns, $CRO has fallen from $.12 to less than $.06 over the past week.

Hong Kong-based crypto exchange AAX suspends all operations, citing system upgrades. See more.

FTX’s collapse brings a lot of speculation to crypto, especially from the side of the retail investor. It is important to keep in mind that FTX is not crypto. It is a centralized exchange who made tremendous errors. I think Mark Cuban says it best:

”These blowups have not been crypto blowups, they have been banking blow-ups. Lending to the wrong entity, misvaluations of collateral, arrogant arbs, followed by depositor runs. See Long Term Capital, Savings & Loan and Sub-Prime blowups. All different versions of the same story” — Mark Cuban

What comes next for crypto?

1. Enforced regulation — No doubt, FTX is going to increase regulatory scrutiny of crypto. Ideally, this regulation comes upon CEX’s, those who created this crisis, not DeFi. As decentralized finance (DeFi) is a long-term answer to the core problem of regulation.

2. Proof of assets transparency — Centralized exchanges have finally listed their proof of reserves. In my opinion, this transparency should have come before the crisis, not after. In DeFi protocols, these requirements are primarily satisfied by the protocols’ in-built transparency. Potential users of these protocols can compare protocol transparency and make informed choices

3. Lack of trust from retail investors — While crypto has made some major strides, we are set back in time in relation to trust of retail investors. It will take time to educate and streamline the onboarding of retail in to DeFi. Ultimately gaining the trust back.

A few things you can do to start taking ownership of your crypto:

1. Not your 🔑’s, not your crypto. Keep your funds off of centralized exchanges. Be sure to set up your own wallet, so you don’t have to worry about your crypto vanishing. I’ve written two articles on MetaMask and Trust Wallet. Get your funds off CEX’s and check them out today!

2. Become educated on DeFi. Let your crypto earn for you. Learning about DeFi opens up an entire financial ecosystem to earn passive income while owning your own crypto

3. Follow me on Twitter and stay up to date!

So, what WTF happened in crypto this week? Well, let me tell you.

1. What happened this week

2. What this means for crypto

3. What you can do

Billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried’s cryptocurrency empire is officially broken into two main parts: FTX (his exchange) and Alameda Research (his trading firm), both giants in their respective industries.

Alameda Research was founded by FTX CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried. Alameda holds Alameda holds $14.6 billion in assets with $8 billion in liabilities as of June 30, CoinDesk reported.

A breakdown of the report showed Alameda’s largest asset was about $3.66 billion of “unlocked FTT” and $2.16 billion of “FTT collateral.” (FTT is the token behind FTX.) This means the $5.82 billion in total FTT that Alameda owns is equal to 193% of the total known FTT market cap.

During the collapse of $LUNA and Terra, it appears that FTX had bailed out Alameda. Appear that Alameda went belly up in Q2 of 2022 along with 3AC and others. There is speculation that Alameda survived because it was able to secure funding from FTX using as “collateral” the 172M FTT that was guaranteed to vest 4 months later.

In 2019, Binance had invested as a shareholder in FTX. It exited that shareholding last year and received $2.1b in Binance’s own stablecoin ($BUSD) and in $FTT tokens as part of the deal. Receiving roughly $529M in $FTT, FTX’s token.

CZ, CEO of Binance, made the statement on November 6th that Binance would be liquidating an balances of $FTT.

With the illiquidity and fear of Binance selling, there was a major sell off of $FTT. has had a massive drop in price from $25 to less than $2 over the past week.

These liquidity concerns not only impact $FTT, but also FTX. So much so that customers also raced to pull out, and FTX saw an estimated $6 billion in withdrawals over the course of 72 hours, which it struggled to fulfill.

Now markets rallied when Bankman-Fried’s announcement on Tuesday, Nov. 8, that Binance would buy FTX, effectively bailing it out. Allowing customers to be able to receive their funds.

On Wednesday, Binance announced it was walking away from the deal, citing findings during due diligence, as well as reports of mishandled customer funds and the possibility of a federal investigation.

Strapped for cash, Bankman-Fried began calling other industry rivals, including Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, for a bailout — to no avail. On Friday, FTX filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and Bankman-Fried resigned as CEO.

In a series of tweets, Bankman-Fried said he “fucked up twice” and chalked up up FTX’s implosion to a combination of high customer withdrawals and his own incorrect estimates of how much debt FTX had taken on.

But a Reuters report suggested that there may be other factors at play. The news service, citing unnamed sources, said that earlier this year, Bankman-Fried transferred customer funds from FTX to Alameda without telling anyone, after Alameda was hit with a series of losses.

FTX’s new CEO, John Ray, confirms hack over $477M. Sources indicating the wallets part of the FTX “hack” are linked to Alameda Research.

BlockFi has frozen withdrawals. The company said in a post on Twitter it learned of the FTX news through Twitter and, due to the lack of clarity, would not be able to operate business as usual. Previously, FTX was set to acquire BlockFi, and FTX.US had extended BlockFi a $400 million line of credit.

Crypto.com reportedly sent sends 320,000 ETH ($400M) to the wrong address. They received around 90% of it back. They also published their reserves showing 20% of their reserves being in $SHIB.

Due to these concerns, $CRO has fallen from $.12 to less than $.06 over the past week.

Hong Kong-based crypto exchange AAX suspends all operations, citing system upgrades. See more.

FTX’s collapse brings a lot of speculation to crypto, especially from the side of the retail investor. It is important to keep in mind that FTX is not crypto. It is a centralized exchange who made tremendous errors. I think Mark Cuban says it best:

”These blowups have not been crypto blowups, they have been banking blow-ups. Lending to the wrong entity, misvaluations of collateral, arrogant arbs, followed by depositor runs. See Long Term Capital, Savings & Loan and Sub-Prime blowups. All different versions of the same story” — Mark Cuban

What comes next for crypto?

1. Enforced regulation — No doubt, FTX is going to increase regulatory scrutiny of crypto. Ideally, this regulation comes upon CEX’s, those who created this crisis, not DeFi. As decentralized finance (DeFi) is a long-term answer to the core problem of regulation.

2. Proof of assets transparency — Centralized exchanges have finally listed their proof of reserves. In my opinion, this transparency should have come before the crisis, not after. In DeFi protocols, these requirements are primarily satisfied by the protocols’ in-built transparency. Potential users of these protocols can compare protocol transparency and make informed choices

3. Lack of trust from retail investors — While crypto has made some major strides, we are set back in time in relation to trust of retail investors. It will take time to educate and streamline the onboarding of retail in to DeFi. Ultimately gaining the trust back.

A few things you can do to start taking ownership of your crypto:

1. Not your 🔑’s, not your crypto. Keep your funds off of centralized exchanges. Be sure to set up your own wallet, so you don’t have to worry about your crypto vanishing. I’ve written two articles on MetaMask and Trust Wallet. Get your funds off CEX’s and check them out today!

2. Become educated on DeFi. Let your crypto earn for you. Learning about DeFi opens up an entire financial ecosystem to earn passive income while owning your own crypto

3. Follow me on Twitter and stay up to date!