Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder and former CEO of the now-bankrupt cryptocurrency alternate FTX created a wierd Twitter thread beginning on Nov. 14 attracting the eye and hypothesis of the crypto neighborhood.
The most recent tweet on the time of writing posted by Bankman-Fried at 5:30 AM UTC on Nov. 15 is Bankman-Fried saying “that is all as I keep in mind it, however my reminiscence is perhaps defective in components”.
10) [NOT LEGAL ADVICE. NOT FINANCIAL ADVICE. THIS IS ALL AS I REMEMBER IT, BUT MY MEMORY MIGHT BE FAULTY IN PARTS.]
— SBF (@SBF_FTX) November 15, 2022
The opposite tweets spell out “What HAPPENED” and had been posted throughout a number of hours.
Requested about his cryptic tweets in a Nov. 14 interview with the New York Occasions. Bankman-Fried mentioned “I’m making it up as I am going” and the collection of tweets is “going to be a couple of phrase.”
When requested why he mentioned “I don’t know,” and added “I’m improvising. I feel it’s time,” seemingly refusing to clarify additional.
Twitter customers immediately took to hypothesis on the that means of the tweets, with crypto YouTuber Stephen Findeisen saying he was “on the amphetamines once more”, presumably in reference to Bankman-Fried discussing experimenting with the amphetamine Adderall on an Oct. 2020 podcast.
He’s on the amphetamines once more… pic.twitter.com/x7lMe2DOyg
— Coffeezilla (@coffeebreak_YT) November 14, 2022
Early within the weird tweet thread, others joked that Bankman-Fried’s lawyer bodily intervened to cease him from publishing something probably damning if authorized motion is introduced ahead.
Tfw your lawyer within the non extradition nation tackles you earlier than you possibly can end your tweet thread https://t.co/EBLbFe5lLG
— Comfortably Smug (@ComfortablySmug) November 14, 2022
Journalist and creator Alex Berenson mentioned the tweets might be an act by Bankman-Fried to presumably defend his actions by claiming madness or that he was below psychological duress if he’s introduced earlier than a court docket.
Appears to be like like somebody’s planning an madness protection https://t.co/VIZGrN1NGv
— Alex Berenson (@AlexBerenson) November 14, 2022
A seemingly debunked idea was that Bankman-Fried allegedly used the brand new tweets to cowl up the deletion of his older “incriminating” ones in a sleight-of-hand try to dupe tweet-tracking bots that use his account’s whole tweet rely to catch deleted tweets.
seems like @SBF_FTX has not been deleting tweets
the discount in tweet rely has come from different accounts deleting tweets (principally associated to FTX/SBF) that Sam had RT’d
lotta @TomBrady
all tweets deleted in final 6 days https://t.co/3iv6FnfLWj pic.twitter.com/LcnIxBVHd8
— CMS intern (@cmsintern) November 15, 2022
Bankman-Fried has deleted probably damning tweets prior to now, most notably the flurry posted on Nov. 7 claiming FTX and its belongings had been “tremendous”.
Associated: Let’s transfer on from FTX’s collapse and get again to the fundamentals
Crypto insights platform The Tie shared a doc on Nov. 15 purporting to point out that Bankman-Fried had deleted no less than 118 tweets over the previous yr, though including that extra could have been missed as a consequence of tweets being recorded by their software program each quarter-hour.
We have archived @SBF_FTX‘s tweets over the previous yr. Because of the current chapter, and rising concern round his account exercise, we have determined to launch the checklist of 118 tracked tweets which have since been deleted after posting.https://t.co/ts04Mbvv1z
— The Tie (@TheTieIO) November 15, 2022
Impartial crypto safety researcher “Officer’s Notes” speculated that the FTX founder was making an attempt his hand at steganography — a method of presenting info inside one other message i.e. a hidden code.
Most likely a steganography thread then? https://t.co/QNNDLLFTbd
— Officer’s Notes (@officer_cia) November 14, 2022
Gurgavin Chandhoke, a distinguished crypto dealer, theorized Bankman-Fried is making an attempt to ship a message to Sam Trabucco, the previous CEO of FTX’s sister buying and selling agency Alameda Analysis.
SAM BANKMAN IS SPELLING “WHAT HAPPENED” WORD BY WORD LIKELY TO SEND SOMEONE A MESSAGE
DO YOU KNOW WHO ELSE USES THAT ?? THE CO CEO OF ALAMEDA WHO LEFT WEEKS AGO SAM TRABUCCO
BANKMAN TWEETED SOMETHING ABOUT A “SPARRING PARTNER” DAYS AGO
I THINK THAT PERSON IS SAM TRABUCCO pic.twitter.com/kzECsfkRep
— GURGAVIN (@gurgavin) November 14, 2022
Chandhoke mentioned Bankman-Fried presumably making an attempt to spell “what occurred” is allegedly sending a message to Trabucco, pointing to a collection of older tweets of Trabucco that say “what occurred?” as proof.
Nonetheless, others assume Bankman-Fried is click-farming and simply desires to see engagement on his posts. Knowledge from the social media analytics platform Social Blade exhibits Bankman-Fried’s Twitter follower rely growing by over 202,000 between Nov. 7 to 13, across the time FTX’s saga started to unfold.
His first tweet within the mysterious thread is his third most-liked tweet.
