Meltdown: Bitcoin crashes to $576

[jcmm]

We have done our DD... it is a small portion of our investment. No blame culture, lets move on. Year ends coming, bonus is coming too. 

When the top has "no blame culture, lets move on" slogan, the rest will follow and "who bothers". 

Edited November 19, 2022 by jcmm

[Shibadog]

11 hours ago, Starry said:

I am not sure how VCs do their DD on FTX, but as a layman, I would have taken my money elsewhere if I see a group of 30s and under 30s who have little working experience running a billion dollar company ...more so a 32b one whose business model is taking in customer investment funds.

what DD? 

https://fortune.com/2022/11/17/raise-2-billion-sloppy-excel-spreadsheet-ftx/

[Wt_know]

this charbo like that 11 years

Madoff 150 years

SBF must break record 200 years? lol

Edited November 19, 2022 by Wt_know

[Windwaver]

https://www.straitstimes.com/business/temasek-to-write-down-us275-million-in-ftx-says-belief-in-bankman-fried-appear-to-be-misplaced

Temasek to write down $377 million in FTX, says belief in Bankman-Fried appears to be ‘misplaced’

SINGAPORE - Temasek will write off its US$275 million (S$377 million) investment in cryptocurrency company FTX, “irrespective of the outcome of FTX’s bankruptcy protection filing”.

In a statement issued early on Thursday, the investment company said the total cost of its investment in FTX was 0.09 per cent of its net portfolio value of $403 billion as at end-March.

It invested US$210 million for a minority stake of about 1 per cent in FTX International, and pumped in another US$65 million for a minority stake of about 1.5 per cent in FTX US, which is the American subsidiary.

These investments were carried out across two funding rounds from October 2021 to January 2022.

The shocking collapse of Mr Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX empire due to liquidity woes has shaken the crypto world and triggered a contagion that has spread to Genesis, the crypto broker, and Gemini, the crypto exchange. FTX has filed for protection from bankruptcy and Mr Bankman-Fried has stepped down as its chief executive.

“It is apparent from this investment that perhaps our belief in the actions, judgment and leadership of Sam Bankman-Fried, formed from our interactions with him and views expressed in our discussions with others, would appear to have been misplaced,” said Temasek.

It added that there have been misperceptions that the investment in FTX is an investment in crypto. “To clarify, we currently have no direct exposure in cryptocurrencies.”

This comes after another FTX investor, Sequoia Capital, said that it would write down the full value of its US$214 million bet on the exchange. SoftBank was later said to be also anticipating a loss of around US$100 million on its investment.

Temasek said that just as it does with all investments, it “conducted an extensive due diligence process on FTX”, which took about eight months from February to October 2021.

During this period, it reviewed the company’s audited financial statement, which showed it to be profitable.

Due diligence efforts were focused on regulatory risks, particularly licensing and compliance, Temasek said, adding that “advice from external legal and cyber-security specialists in key jurisdictions was sought, with legal and regulatory review done for the investments”.

Interviews with people familiar with FTX, such as staff, industry players and other investors, were also conducted.

If allegations, now under investigation, that customer assets were mishandled and misused are true, then it would amount to serious misconduct or fraud at FTX, Temasek said.

It added: “As we only had about 1 per cent stake in FTX, we did not have a board seat. However, we take corporate governance seriously, engage the boards and management of our investee companies regularly and hold them accountable for the activities of their companies.”

FTX’s board comprised Mr Bankman-Fried, an FTX staff member and a lawyer. There was no investor on its board.

Temasek said it continues to recognise the potential of blockchain applications and decentralised technologies.

“While this write-down of our investment in FTX will not have significant impact on our overall performance, we treat any investment losses seriously and there will be learnings for us from this,” it said.

 

[Windwaver]

43 minutes ago, Shibadog said:

what DD? 

https://fortune.com/2022/11/17/raise-2-billion-sloppy-excel-spreadsheet-ftx/

Due Diligence not this 

Edited November 19, 2022 by Windwaver

[Shibadog]

2 minutes ago, Windwaver said:

Due Diligence.

lol 

[Kb27]

28 minutes ago, Windwaver said:

https://www.straitstimes.com/business/temasek-to-write-down-us275-million-in-ftx-says-belief-in-bankman-fried-appear-to-be-misplaced

Temasek to write down $377 million in FTX, says belief in Bankman-Fried appears to be ‘misplaced’

SINGAPORE - Temasek will write off its US$275 million (S$377 million) investment in cryptocurrency company FTX, “irrespective of the outcome of FTX’s bankruptcy protection filing”.

In a statement issued early on Thursday, the investment company said the total cost of its investment in FTX was 0.09 per cent of its net portfolio value of $403 billion as at end-March.

It invested US$210 million for a minority stake of about 1 per cent in FTX International, and pumped in another US$65 million for a minority stake of about 1.5 per cent in FTX US, which is the American subsidiary.

These investments were carried out across two funding rounds from October 2021 to January 2022.

The shocking collapse of Mr Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX empire due to liquidity woes has shaken the crypto world and triggered a contagion that has spread to Genesis, the crypto broker, and Gemini, the crypto exchange. FTX has filed for protection from bankruptcy and Mr Bankman-Fried has stepped down as its chief executive.

“It is apparent from this investment that perhaps our belief in the actions, judgment and leadership of Sam Bankman-Fried, formed from our interactions with him and views expressed in our discussions with others, would appear to have been misplaced,” said Temasek.

It added that there have been misperceptions that the investment in FTX is an investment in crypto. “To clarify, we currently have no direct exposure in cryptocurrencies.”

This comes after another FTX investor, Sequoia Capital, said that it would write down the full value of its US$214 million bet on the exchange. SoftBank was later said to be also anticipating a loss of around US$100 million on its investment.

Temasek said that just as it does with all investments, it “conducted an extensive due diligence process on FTX”, which took about eight months from February to October 2021.

During this period, it reviewed the company’s audited financial statement, which showed it to be profitable.

Due diligence efforts were focused on regulatory risks, particularly licensing and compliance, Temasek said, adding that “advice from external legal and cyber-security specialists in key jurisdictions was sought, with legal and regulatory review done for the investments”.

Interviews with people familiar with FTX, such as staff, industry players and other investors, were also conducted.

If allegations, now under investigation, that customer assets were mishandled and misused are true, then it would amount to serious misconduct or fraud at FTX, Temasek said.

It added: “As we only had about 1 per cent stake in FTX, we did not have a board seat. However, we take corporate governance seriously, engage the boards and management of our investee companies regularly and hold them accountable for the activities of their companies.”

FTX’s board comprised Mr Bankman-Fried, an FTX staff member and a lawyer. There was no investor on its board.

Temasek said it continues to recognise the potential of blockchain applications and decentralised technologies.

“While this write-down of our investment in FTX will not have significant impact on our overall performance, we treat any investment losses seriously and there will be learnings for us from this,” it said.

 

uncle go to horse racing and place bets. he lose everything and go home.

auntie ask why he lose all our life savings.

uncle say it was a misplaced belief in the wrong horse.

same same..

Edited November 19, 2022 by Kb27

[Throttle2]

4 hours ago, Kb27 said:

uncle go to horse racing and place bets. he lose everything and go home.

auntie ask why he lose all our life savings.

uncle say it was a misplaced belief in the wrong horse.

same same..

Well said.

that was exactly what it was.

 

[Volvobrick]

5 hours ago, Kb27 said:

uncle go to horse racing and place bets. he lose everything and go home.

auntie ask why he lose all our life savings.

uncle say it was a misplaced belief in the wrong horse.

same same..

Your uncle is qualified to work and fund manager in Temasick. Same same just betting except adding several zeros to the amount. 

[t0y0ta]

1 hour ago, Volvobrick said:

Your uncle is qualified to work and fund manager in Temasick. Same same just betting except adding several zeros to the amount. 

Also he have to wear suit and drink fine wine instead of singlet/berms with kopitiam beer

[Shibadog]

41 minutes ago, t0y0ta said:

Also he have to wear suit and drink fine wine instead of singlet/berms with kopitiam beer

and use other pple $$ not $$ from his own wallet

[Stary]

del

Edited November 19, 2022 by Starry

[Ody_2004]

 

[Jamesc]

They gave hundreds of millions to a boy wearing short pants.

 

Edited November 20, 2022 by Jamesc

[Jamesc]

[Jamesc]

[Jamesc]

“Never in my career have I seen such a complete failure of corporate controls and such a complete absence of trustworthy financial information,” said John J Ray III, the group’s new chief executive officer, in a declaration submitted in court.

Ray, who also oversaw the liquidation of Enron.

[Windwaver]

https://www.asiaone.com/money/not-open-crypto-speculation-all-ftx-meltdown-puts-focus-singapore-s-digital-asset-stance

26-year-old investor files for bankruptcy as FTX meltdown puts focus on Singapore's digital asset stance

Jacob* was immediately intrigued with cryptocurrencies and digital assets when he first heard about them as a teen, but only found time to learn how to trade during lockdown in 2020.

He quickly built up a decent sum, mostly using Binance – the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange. But government regulations introduced last year limited the services Binance could offer Singaporeans, so the 26-year-old decided to shift his money to another exchange, FTX, a platform with around one million users.

On Nov 8, he noticed that something was wrong as major institutions began unloading their holdings of FTT – native cryptocurrency tokens used on FTX.

But management trainee Jacob was unable to withdraw all his $50,000 before FTX collapsed and filed for bankruptcy.

“I happened to have my money in the wrong place at the wrong time,” he said. Imagine having S$50,000 in [a bank] and then suddenly you don’t any more, not because you bought the wrong stocks, but simply because you left your money in there.”

Last week, in mere hours, he lost almost his entire savings when FTX saw a huge sell-off triggered by a tweet by rival Binance’s CEO Changpeng Zhao, announcing the firm had decided to dump all its FTT holdings.

The tweet sparked an investor exodus from both the token and the exchange. An FTT worth US$78 in September 2021 fell to around US$24 before the tweet, and less than US$2 (S$3) this week.

Jacob – who spoke to This Week in Asia on condition of anonymity – as well other Singaporean youth interviewed by media outlets like Tech in Asia said they thought FTX was reliable because it had the investment backing of the likes of Singaporean state investor Temasek, Sequoia Capital and Japan ’s Softbank .

These investors – among the most respected in the world – had put money on FTX.

Singapore’s Temasek, majority owner of the nation’s top corporate brands such as Singapore Airlines and Singtel, on Thursday said it was writing down its US$275 million investment in FTX , reasoning it had “misplaced” its belief in founder Sam Bankman-Fried.

The investment amounted to 0.09 per cent of its net portfolio of $403 billion as of March 31.

In local crypto circles, some have questioned if local authorities could have done more to insulate Singapore investors from FTX’s collapse.

Officials have pointed out that the government has long warned about the risks inherent in cryptocurrency investment. “We are open to digital innovation and digital asset innovation, but we are not open to crypto speculation at all,” Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong said at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum on Thursday.

As far back as 2017, the central bank, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), has consistently warned that cryptocurrencies are not suitable investments for the retail public.

In September 2021, MAS placed Binance on its Investor Alert List (IAL) to warn investors the firm did not possess a local license. The IAL warns consumers that entities on it are not regulated or licensed to provide payment services in Singapore. The MAS also blocked Binance from providing payment services, leading the company to terminate its Singapore operations.

Reports have said numerous investors, like Jacob, switched to FTX at this point, thinking it was safe because authorities had not placed the platform in the same category as Binance.

MAS sought to set the record straight this week, noting that Binance was never banned from operating in the country. It also said it had no cause to add FTX to its IAL, adding that it was not possible to prevent Singapore users from directly accessing overseas service providers.

While entities are included in the IAL if they “may be wrongly perceived as being regulated by MAS”, the central bank said it was not meaningful to include all unlicensed entities.

Jacob told This Week in Asia he understood that “investments carry risk and it’s honestly not up to the authorities to bear those risks when things go awry.”

But, he added, “what investors look out for, however, are signals that the government and its related corporations give out. Effectively cutting off Singaporeans’ access to Binance and investing a large chunk in FTX via Temasek is one big signal”.

https://multimedia.scmp.com/widgets/business/bitcoin/bitcoin.html

Experts who spoke to This Week In Asia said the FTX meltdown was likely to bring into focus the need for governments – in Singapore and elsewhere – to step up plans to regulate the cryptocurrency space. MAS in October unveiled a proposal to reduce risk to consumers in this regard.

Shaun Leong, a partner in the international arbitration and litigation team at law firm Withers KhattarWong, said it was “reasonable” that some investors considered that Binance was banned in Singapore, given authorities ordered it to stop providing payment services to Singapore residents since it did not have a licence to solicit customers.

Woo Jun Jie, senior research fellow at the Institute of Policy Studies at the National University of Singapore, said: “Binance was placed on the IAL as it had been wrongfully perceived to be regulated by MAS and hence permitted to solicit customers.

“The confusion came about because there is no way to stop a crypto platform from onboarding investors from anywhere in the world , and it would hence not be meaningful to have a list of platforms that are ‘not regulated’.”

Nizam Ismail, founder of Singapore-based compliance consultancy Ethikom Consultancy, said complaints from investors that they had no option but to invest with FTX were inaccurate, and said MAS issued warnings on dealing with unlicensed exchanges.

“Investors must conduct due diligence on whether the exchange is regulated in a reputable jurisdiction before deciding to trade on the platform,” he said.

Nevertheless, the saga highlighted the “obvious regulatory gaps” in the cryptocurrency market, Nizam said.

Ismail said the space remains “borderless” although regulations are “local”, making it challenging to make measures to police areas like consumer asset segregation or disclosures to consumers.

Woo, who researches cryptocurrency regulation, said authorities could consider introducing a “risk-based approach to categorising cryptocurrency platforms” to tell investors about the degree of risk when investing in a particular platform.

Is there any recourse for investors moving forward? Perhaps, although the process is likely to be long and arduous.

Mike Chiam, a partner at PDLegal LLC, a commercial law practice with expertise in cryptocurrency matters, said investors can review the background and circumstances of how they deposited their digital deposits on FTX and seek legal advice on the suspension of withdrawals.

With about US$650 million worth of cryptoassets mysteriously siphoned from FTX’s crypto wallets last week, it is also possible for affected investors to obtain worldwide freezing orders against the wallets of these unidentified hackers and end any further squandering, Leong said.

“I would not be too hopeful of getting anything back from this process given the substantial depletion of funds,” he added.

For now, investors like Jacob are left to rue what lies ahead after their heavy losses over the last two weeks.

“Last year, I was on track to making my first million by about 30 years old. Now, I’m resetting from zero,” said Jacob, who graduated from university in 2021. “I’m probably going to sell my car to save more money and accumulate all over again.”

* Not his real name