At least $1 billion of customer funds disappeared from the collapsed FTX crypto exchange

Reuters sources said that the founder of the exchange, American Sam Bankman-Fried (pictured), secretly transferred $10 billion of client funds to his company Alameda Research, after which part of the money disappeared. According to some sources, the missing amount is estimated at $1,7 billion, according to others - at $1-2 billion. The financial hole was discovered in the records that Bankman-Fried shared a week ago with other top managers, the sources noted. 

Bankman-Fried himself told Reuters that he did not agree with the wording about the “secret transfer” of $10 billion: “We did not carry out a secret transfer. We had some confusing internal markings and we misrecognized them.” When asked about the disappearance of client funds, the billionaire answered: “???”. The day before, the FTX crypto exchange, considered the fourth largest in the world, filed for bankruptcy. The collapse of the exchange was led to by an article from the online publication Coindesk, which spoke about the insolvency of FTX. Against the backdrop of this information, investors began to withdraw funds from the exchange, and the US regulator began an investigation into FTX.