‘Fuck regulators,’ said SBF behind closed doors: Report

The disgraced crypto executive frequently praised the need for crypto regulation in public.

Despite publicly supporting drafting crypto regulation to protect customers, disgraced crypto exchange FTX founder Sam “SBF” Bankman-Fried appears to have shared a deep disdain for regulators.

During SBF’s ongoing criminal trial, Assistant U.S. Prosecutor Danielle Sassoon inquired if the crypto executive could recall his previous Twitter statements regarding his support of blockchain regulation to protect customers. “I don’t remember,” SBF said. Sassoon asked, “But in private, you said, fuck regulators, right?”

“I said that once,” SBF replied. Among other profanities, the former crypto executive also stated that he viewed a “subset of people” on Crypto Twitter as “dumb motherfuckers.” Before his arrest, SBF testified in a 2021 hearing before the U.S. House Financial Services Committee on crypto regulation. 

“You said it [regulations] was P.R. [public relations]?” asked Sassoon. SBF responded, “I said something like that.”

During additional questioning, SBF also claimed that the benefits of helping draft crypto regulation included assisting in FTX taking market share from competitor exchange Binance. Before FTX’s collapse last November, SBF revealed that the exchange, along with sister hedge fund Alameda Research, held close to $15 billion in customers’ deposits, with $10 billion reported missing.

On Nov. 8, 2022, Binance founder Changpeng Zhao signed a letter of intent to acquire FTX. The deal fell apart just a day later after Binance reportedly viewed FTX’s books and discovered the asset discrepancy. SBF recalled that on Nov. 7, 2022, customer net withdrawals amounted to $4 billion, or 100 times the volume of an average trading day, sending the company into a deep liquidity crisis.

 The criminal trial of Bankman-Fried is ongoing and is expected to wrap up by early next week.