--- title: "Sam Bankman-Fried Deletes Tweet Promising Customers’ Money Is Safe" description: "One glaring question remains following FTX's collapse: will customers will ever get their money back? That's looking unlikely, given the evidence." date: "2022-11-10" modified: "2022-11-10" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/sam-bankman-fried-deleted-tweet-money-safe" categories: - "Blockchain" - "Future Society" --- # Sam Bankman-Fried Deletes Tweet Promising Customers’ Money Is Safe ![One glaring question remains following FTX's collapse: will customers will ever get their money back? That's looking unlikely, given the evidence.]() *\Image: Getty Images/Futurism\* The so-called "Robin Hood of crypto" and FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried has had a week of hell. His cryptocurrency exchange [collapsed]() in on itself, with rival Binance first offering to bail him out, only to rescind the offer a day later after the company [had a closer look]() at FTX's books. The event wiped out a [whopping 94 percent]() of Sam Bankman-Fried's roughly $16 billion net worth, a spectacular collapse in wealth of unprecedented proportions. A glaring question remains: will FTX customers will ever get their money back? That's looking increasingly unlikely, given some damning evidence. A day before Binance offered to buy FTX, Bankman-Fried tweeted that "FTX has enough to cover all client holdings," only to [quietly delete the tweet]() later, suggesting that the exchange is in serious trouble, as [*Fortune* pointed out](). "Our teams are working on clearing out the withdrawal backlog as is," Bankman-Fried [tweeted]() on Monday, after Binance announced it was offering to take over. "This will clear out liquidity crunches; all assets will be covered 1:1." But now, to Bankman-Fried's dismay, Binance's offer is off the table. "Our hope was to be able to support FTX’s customers to provide liquidity, but the issues are beyond our control or ability to help," Binance wrote in a [statement](), referencing "the latest news reports regarding mishandled customer funds and alleged US agency investigations" for its reason not to pursue the acquisition. That means Bankman-Fried has an even steeper hill to climb. Whether he has enough liquidity to actually refund users without Binance's help remains as dubious as ever. But the crypto billionaire is at least feeling regret. "I fucked up, and should have done better," he [wrote]() in an apologetic Twitter thread today. Bankman-Fried said he didn't communicate enough and made errors while internally labeling "bank-related accounts," which caused his "sense of users' margin" to be "substantially off." As for the billions of dollars he owes to FTX users, it's not looking great. "So, right now, we're spending the week doing everything we can to raise liquidity," the FTX CEO [tweeted](). "I can't make any promises about that. But I'm going to try. And give anything I have to if that will make it work." In short, things are shaky as they've ever been. As of Thursday morning, FTX has resumed withdrawals, allowing a number of users to withdraw millions of dollars' worth of crypto for the first time in days, [*CoinDesk* reports](). FTX's spectacular implosion has sent ripples throughout the cryptocurrency industry, with the price of bitcoin falling sharply after the news. It's yet another stark reminder that crypto exchanges are, if history is any judge, astonishingly risky places to store assets. Crypto investments should be treated with the utmost caution — the next implosion could be right around the corner. **READ MORE:** [Sam Bankman-Fried quietly deletes his claim that FTX customer funds are safe]() \[*Fortune*\] **More on FTX:** *[Crypto Billionaire Loses 94 Percent of His Wealth in One Day]()* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()