Bankman-Fried says his firms may deploy ‘hundreds of millions’ to backstop struggling crypto industry

In an interview with CNBC today, FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried said that he would be willing to spend “hundreds of millions beyond what we have thus far and in some cases more than that” to backstop firms affected by crypto’s recent market crash.

The interview comes days after Bloomberg reported that FTX and FTX US are in talks to raise fresh funds, following a spending spree that saw the firm deploy nearly $1 billion over two weeks in June.

During this period, Bankman-Fried bought Canadian trading platform Bitvo and clearing house Embed, and also entered deals to provide revolving credit lines to struggling crypto firms BlockFi and Voyager. 

Although Bankman-Fried said that the amount the firm will deploy is “open-ended,” he noted that “there is a limit.” 

Asked if his recent buying spree is creating the conditions for a monopoly, he said this isn’t something FTX is actively pursuing, adding that “we would love other people to be coming in and providing capital to those in need.”

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