In an interview with Decrypt, Sam Bankman-Fried, the CEO of FTX Exchange, admitted that his company “sure should have” done more to protect its customers’ funds after a spectacular collapse of shares from GameStop and AMC shook the markets. He underscored FTX’s fast-paced growth since early 2020 as a key factor in the company’s failure to anticipate the unforeseen events. He said, “FTX wasn’t designed to be the one exchange that was prepared for the worst thing that could ever happen. But we certainly should have done more than we did.” The company’s margin requirements for highly volatile securities were raised from 4x to 6x to protect both customers and the exchange. Bankman-Fried conceded that while this may have reduced the effect of liquidity issues, “it didn’t totally stop them.” He noted that the company was working to add more safety mechanisms that should prevent a similar incident from occurring in the future.
