WhereIsAtlas · Crypto

What Happened to FTX?

The $32 billion crypto exchange that collapsed in days amid one of the biggest frauds in modern finance.

FTX was a major crypto exchange worth about $32 billion. It collapsed in November 2022 over a massive fraud, and its founder Sam Bankman-Fried was convicted. The exchange now exists largely to recover customer funds — a cautionary tale of the crypto boom.

The crypto boom's titan

FTX was founded in 2019 by Sam Bankman-Fried and rose quickly to become one of the world's largest cryptocurrency exchanges. It was seen as a sophisticated, well-run trading platform, and its young founder became a public celebrity of the crypto era — a trusted, photogenic figure who spoke warmly of effective altruism and even testified before regulators.

At its height, FTX was valued at about $32 billion.

The collapse

In November 2022 the house of cards fell. Concerns about the exchange's financial health spiraled into a run, and within days FTX filed for bankruptcy. What emerged was not just a business failure but a fraud: customer funds had been used to prop up the founder's trading firm, Alameda Research.

The fraud and the fallout

Sam Bankman-Fried was arrested and ultimately convicted on multiple counts of fraud and conspiracy, and sentenced to prison. The collapse wiped out the savings of countless investors and customers, and it sent shockwaves through the cryptocurrency world — eroding the trust that had fueled the boom.

Where FTX is now

FTX still exists in name, but only as an entity working through bankruptcy to recover and return customer funds. The exchange is no longer the trading platform it once was. Its wreckage serves as a defining cautionary tale — the exchange that was once worth tens of billions is gone, a stark example of how quickly trust can be destroyed when it is built on deception.

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