The consequences of the collapse of FTX, formerly one of the largest crypto exchanges in the world, are still being felt in the cryptocurrency market, and after the arrest of founder Sam Bankman-Fried, former stockbroker Jordan Belfort has a few things to say about the whole situation.
Wall Street tycoon J. Belfort says SBF is ‘over’! So why?
Jordan Belfort, commonly known as the “Wolf of Wall Street”, said that SBF is “done” and the boom in the FTX ecosystem is largely due to the co-arrested amphetamine use of Caroline Ellison, former CEO of Alameda Research. As SBF said in an interview with Newsmax’s Eric Bolling on Dec.
According to Belfort, the situation is progressing exactly as he thought it would, which is the collaboration of SBF and others involved in the scandal.
“They denied the appeals, so they’re giving a roadmap to the US Attorney General and the FBI right now. This guy has no chance. He has no defense. At some point he will plead guilty and make a confession. He won’t appear in court and will be sentenced. My guess is 50 years in prison, maybe More than that.”
‘Open-close event’
Comparing the alleged plan to Bernie Madoff’s, the former stockbroker said it was a “truly on-and-off case” of stealing people’s money, and there was no defense for it.
“So people were depositing money into FTX thinking they were depositing money at a brokerage and the money was allocated to each person’s account, and it had a backdoor that took the money to Alameda, its trading arm.”
Belfort also said that the FTX leadership is “the worst traders on the planet” and has lost billions of dollars in betting “backed by client funds”. As he added, losing a few billion dollars “is actually really easy because they were trading with leverage and that’s a disaster.”
Ellison and amphetamines
Citing Ellison, he also commented that “it’s very easy to lose huge amounts of money” when it comes to drugs, explaining:
“The thing about amphetamines and cocaine is that you think you’re sharper when you’re using them, but you’re not actually that sharp, but you think you’re really smart, so in your own mind, he thinks he’s high. He got this collective genius around by getting high on amphetamines.”
On top of that, he believes Ellison had “a false sense of security from when anyone could make money in crypto trading”, but then “monetization methods started to crumble and now he has to become one.” A real trader and he was absolutely and utterly murdered by the leverage fueled by methamphetamines.
Missed red flags and bad trade
Earlier in November, Belfort expressed the view that the collapse of FTX was most likely premeditated, labeling SBF a sociopath and comparing FTX’s business model to a “sister home,” while questioning why his supporters didn’t notice the red flags, Finbold reported. .
It’s also worth noting that retired FBI agent Gregory Coleman, who was involved in the cases of the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme and the prosecution of Belfort, said prosecuting the SBF was simple and that investigators should only follow the money as they handled the situation badly.