Polymarket still gives a relatively small chance of pardon for Bankman-Fried even under the Trump administration.
Sam Bankman-Fried posted again after reviving his X account to complain about the perceived flaws in his conviction process. Bankman-Fried stated that FTX was never officially bankrupt and that he did not declare insolvency.
Sam Bankman-Fried posted another explanation of the FTX crash, arguing the exchange never went bankrupt, and he did not personally file for insolvency. Instead, he insists that the procedure was filed by the lawyers who seized the company.
As Cryptopolitan reported earlier, Bankman-Fried came out against “Biden’s lawfare machine,” claiming the process against FTX was outside his control and there was no chance to present evidence of solvency.
FTX was indeed capable of repaying its creditors in cash after liquidating its holdings. However, the value of some assets was much lower, and BTC holders were compensated at prices in the $16,000 range. This is the basis of Bankman-Fried’s argument that the exchange was always in control of its crypto reserves.
FTX and Alameda Research still held some assets with low liquidity, especially NFTs, which were liquidated at a fraction of the price. The subsequent bear market further hurt the dollar value of FTX’s holdings.
Despite the crypto-friendly administration of Donald Trump, Sam Bankman-Fried has missed the series of pardons issued by the president. Unlike Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, Bankman-Fried had to watch the 2024-2025 bull market from the sidelines.
Trump has explicitly stated he has no intentions of pardoning Bankman-Fried, even following Caroline Ellison’s release from prison.
To stand a chance at freedom, Bankman-Fried has doubled down on the claim that he was banned from presenting the right evidence that the exchange was not insolvent.
The FTX bankruptcy showed the problems of fitting a regular bankruptcy procedure for a crypto company. FTX was giving signs of being unable to cover crypto-based obligations, but held significant value in its wallets. In hindsight, supporters have claimed the exchange could have continued operations to recoup losses.
Following the latest tweet from Bankman-Fried, even the FTT token reacted with a vertical rally to a one-week high of $0.35. Even after a bear market, crypto users were not entirely hostile to the FTX team, recently adopting the Backpack exchange launched by Alameda Research alumni.
Bankman-Fried’s claims arrive just as the Backpack exchange was close to a successful $50M raise for a unicorn company valuation.
Polymarket predictions still assign a low probability for a pardon for Bankman-Fried.
The main prediction pair briefly jumped to a 13% chance, but returned to 11% the next day. Despite this, the recent X activity shows Bankman-Fried has set out on a case of cutting short his 25-year sentence.
Despite Bankman-Fried’s donations to US Democrats, FTX failed during the most stringent anti-crypto sentiment, which accelerated the bankruptcy procedures. Bankman-Fried received the longest sentence and the smallest chance of regaining freedom among FTX executives.
