FTX Saga is ‘Somewhere Between That of Voyager and Celsius’
SBF evoked the names of the two other doomed crypto firms, Voyager and Celsius, during his post, presumably in an effort to recast FTX’s story as a company beset by an unfortunate crypto collapse, as opposed to old-fashioned fraud.
In Voyager’s case, the company was forced to declare Chapter 11 bankruptcy a little over a month after it restricted its customers from making withdrawals. Voyager said it was unable to give customers their money, in part, because crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital owed them around $666 million. Three Arrows Capital, itself in distress, was forced to liquidate assets in June. Celsius, which billed itself as a modern day Robin Hood lending platform, offered customers absurdly high interest rates (up to 18%) on crypto, but was only able to do so by simultaneously making incredibly risky investments. Celsius filed for chapter 11 on July 14.
The real irony here is that both Voyager and Celsius are in reality facing multiple lawsuits and federal investigations. If the FTX saga really is somewhere between Voyager and Celsius, SBF may very well still be heading to jail.
