MUSEUM OF THE FALLEN
Dominance is not eternal.
The Wall/ Dead Companies/ FTX
The FTX logo; the crypto exchange collapsed in November 2022.

Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons · Public domain

Dead Companies

FTX

2019 CE 2022 CE

A crypto exchange that lent its customers' deposits to its founder's hedge fund, then ran out of money.

Born
2019 CE
Died
2022 CE
Lived
3 years
Dead for
4 yrs
At its peak
$32 billion valuation (early 2022)
Cause of death
Overreach
Replaced by
—
The Obituary

FTX, launched in 2019 by Sam Bankman-Fried, grew within three years into one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, valued at $32 billion and fronted by celebrity endorsements and stadium naming rights. Behind the marketing, FTX secretly funneled billions of dollars of customer deposits to Alameda Research, Bankman-Fried’s affiliated trading firm. When a November 2022 report triggered a run on the exchange, the missing funds left an unfillable hole. FTX filed for bankruptcy on 11 November 2022. Bankman-Fried was convicted of fraud in 2023 and sentenced to 25 years.

Worth remembering

  • At its early-2022 peak FTX was valued at $32 billion and bought naming rights to the Miami Heat's arena.
  • Founder Sam Bankman-Fried was convicted on seven counts of fraud and conspiracy in 2023 and sentenced to 25 years.

Sources

  1. FTX, a cryptocurrency exchange, collapsed in November 2022 after a liquidity crisis revealed misuse of customer funds, and filed for bankruptcy Wikipedia
  2. Sam Bankman-Fried was convicted of fraud in 2023 over the diversion of FTX customer funds to Alameda Research Wikipedia

A graveyard tradition: leave a stone to show you came, and remembered.

Buried nearby
Dead Companies
Arthur Andersen
1913 CE — 2002 CE
Dead Companies
Atari, Inc.
1972 CE — 1984 CE
Lost Technology
CED VideoDisc
1981 CE — 1984 CE
← Back to the Wall