Following FTX's dramatic fall, Twitter's new CEO, Elon Musk, took to the platform to say that he never trusted Sam Bankman-Fried, who stepped down as CEO of FTX on Friday when the business filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Bankman-Fried was interested in assisting in the development of a blockchain version of Twitter. Despite his support for cryptocurrency, Musk rejected that proposal.
"Blockchain Twitter isn't possible," Musk reportedly told his banker, Michael Grimes from Morgan Stanley.
He also stated that he would only meet with Bankman-Fried "so long as I don't have to have a laborious blockchain debate."
Bankman-Fried contacted Musk in March via their intermediaries (in Bankman-Fried's case, William MacAskill of FTX's Future Fund) to express his interest in investing in Musk's bid for Twitter. Musk's text exchanges were leaked in September as part of a legal case.
Grimes told Musk at the time that Bankman-Fried was offering "at least $3 billion" to assist Musk in purchasing Twitter, and that he wanted to discuss the possibility of "social media blockchain integration."
"Does Sam actually have $3B liquid?" Musk questioned Grimes at the time.
On Friday night, a well-known account that posts internal emails from the IT sector tweeted out the conversation once more as Crypto Twitter proceeded to have a field day rehashing recent events involving Bankman-Fried.
Musk tweeted in response, "Accurate. He set off my bs detector, which is why I did not think he had $3B."
"He's into you... I do believe you will like him. Ultra genius and doer builder like your formula. Built FTX from scratch after MIT physics." Grimes had texted Musk.
Grimes informed Musk that Bankman-Fried was willing to invest even without the blockchain component. Musk declined.
Everyone is naturally eager to remove themselves from the stench in light of the financial misdeeds at FTX, which used customer funds and its own FTT token to support Alameda.
Musk officially took control of Twitter on Oct. 27.
After Changpeng "CZ" Zhao, CEO of rival exchange Binance, said his company will liquidate its holdings of FTX's FTT token, the next two weeks saw FTX crash and burn. Due to the collapse in the price of FTT, customers withdrew $5 billion from FTX, which lacked the liquidity to cover them.
FTX revealed that the company had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy "to begin an orderly process to review and monetize assets for the benefit of all global stakeholders." according to a news release that was circulated on Twitter.
Additionally declaring bankruptcy will be the company's sister company, the algorithmic trading firm Alameda Research, its American affiliate FTX.US, and over 130 other related entities.
