Sam Bankman-Fried, chief executive of FTX said he and his company still have “a few” billion to backstop embattled digital asset companies, as crypto prices plunge and the rather nascent industry struggles with ripple effects from the failure of several major players.
The worst of the liquidity crunch had likely passed, Bankman-Fried told Reuters. This is said after crypto lender Celsius halted withdrawals beginning June 12, while crypto hedge fund Three Arrows and broker Voyager both filed for bankruptcy in the U.S.
In June, Voyager received a loan from Bankman-Fried’s crypto-trading firm Alameda Research worth $200 million cash and USDC USDCUSD, +0.01% revolver and a 15,000 BTC BTCUSD, +0.72%.
BlockFi was bailed out by FTX US after losing about $80 million due to affiliation to Arrows last week. FTX US agreed to provide a $400 million revolving credit facility, and the deal also includes an option for FTX to buy BlockFi at a maximum price of $240 million.
Bankman-Fried told Reuters that if required, the firm still had enough cash on hand to do a $2 billion deal, although “it does get increasingly expensive with each one of these.”
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