Is the FTX Fallout Bigger Than Bernie Madoff?

In early November, reports emerged that FTX (“Futures Exchange”), a crypto-currency company that oversaw $1.3 billion in assets, had lost $2 billion in its customer money. This money was not lost in the market, it supposedly vanished out of thin air, suspected to have been stolen. At the same time, FTX, a company once worth $32 billon, seemingly went bankrupt overnight. This has sent shockwaves across financial markets as the most devasting collapse in the history of crypto. FTX founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, is under intense criminal investigation after lawyers of the company released information about “substantial amounts” of customer money being stolen and the unlikeliness that this massive amount of wealth will ever be returned to users. FTX’s bankruptcy was sudden and unexpected, with very few records kept and no forewarning to investors about the impending collapse of the company.