FTX Token Surges After Sam Bankman-Fried’s First Tweet in Two Years
The token linked to the now-defunct crypto exchange FTX experienced a brief surge on Monday night, following a tweet from Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder and former CEO of the platform, who communicated through social media for the first time in two years. Bankman-Fried, who was convicted on seven counts of fraud and conspiracy in November 2023, is currently serving a 25-year prison sentence.
Currently detained at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, Bankman-Fried’s legal team is actively working on an appeal against his conviction. Despite his incarceration, his account on X (formerly known as Twitter) shared a thread of ten tweets that appeared to comment on layoffs, seemingly in response to Elon Musk’s recent directive for federal employees to report their work activities from the previous week or face potential resignations.
His tweet thread opened with a note of empathy: “I have a lot of sympathy for [government] employees: I, too, have not checked my email for the past few (hundred) days.” Following these tweets, the FTX token (FTT) saw a noticeable spike in value, rising from approximately $1.55 to $2.07, before settling back down to around $1.78, as reported by CoinGecko. View the tweet here.
Although Bankman-Fried does not have direct access to platforms like X or email, he is able to communicate through the Corrlinks system, which allows U.S. prisoners to send messages to others. Sources indicate that it remains unclear who might be managing his social media posts on his behalf.
Over the weekend, Musk, identified in court documents as a special government employee, tweeted that federal employees must report to the Office of Personnel Management detailing their activities from the prior week, with non-compliance interpreted as a resignation. Responses among federal agency heads varied, with some advising their teams not to engage, while others encouraged compliance.
This initiative aligns with Musk’s broader strategy to significantly reduce the federal workforce at the request of U.S. President Donald Trump. Bankman-Fried’s tweets addressed the topic of layoffs in detail, exploring the complexities and dynamics that can lead to an employee’s termination. Read more here.
He emphasized, “It isn’t the employee’s fault when that happens. It isn’t their fault if their employer doesn’t really know what to do with them, or doesn’t really have anyone to effectively manage them. It isn’t their fault if internal politics lead their department to lose its way.”
