Shalini Nagarajan

Sam Bankman-Fried’s lawyers have moved to dismiss most of the former <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/ftx" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">FTX</a> CEO’s 13 criminal charges relating to the epic downfall of his crypto empire.



Counsel for Bankman-Fried argued Monday that FTX had outlasted its competitors in the face of “crypto winter” — the industry-wide downturn which affected crypto exchanges, banks, lenders and hedge funds.



Many struggled or even shut down completely last year. But FTX survived longer than most that filed for bankruptcy, Bankman-Fried’s counsel <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.590940/gov.uscourts.nysd.590940.139.0.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said</a>, before ultimately surrendering to the same market forces.



“The government’s response was dramatic — and troubling,” they said. “Rather than wait for traditional civil and regulatory processes following their ordinary course to address the situation, the government jumped in with both feet, improperly seeking to turn these civil and regulatory issues into federal crimes.”



In pre-trial motions, Bankman-Fried’s lawyers sought reprieve from all charges except conspiracy to commit securities fraud on FTX investors, securities fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering.



In total, his lawyers moved to dismiss:&nbsp;



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Counts 1-2: Conspiracy to commit wire fraud on FTX customers, wire fraud on FTX customers.</li>



<li>Counts 3-4: Conspiracy to commit wire fraud on FTX customers in connection with purchase and sale of derivatives, fraud on FTX customers with purchase and sale of derivatives.</li>



<li>Counts 7-9: Conspiracy to commit wire fraud on Alameda Research lenders, wire fraud on Alameda Research lenders, conspiracy to commit bank fraud.</li>



<li>Count 10: Conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money-transmitting business.</li>



<li>Counts 12-13: Conspiracy to make unlawful political contributions and defraud the Federal Election Commission, conspiracy to violate the anti-bribery provisions of the foreign corrupt practices act.</li>
</ul>



One argument for dismissal was a violation of the rule of specialty: counts nine, 10, 12 and 13 supposedly involve crimes outside the scope of the specific offenses for which Bankman-Fried is being prosecuted. Other reasons included “failure to state an offense” or “multiplicitous counts.”



Bankman-Fried was brought from the Bahamas to the US <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/bankman-fried-set-for-us-extradition-to-face-monster-indictment" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">through extradition</a>. According to the treaty between the two countries, the Bahamas must agree to any charges filed after extradition, lawyers said.



However, Bankman-Fried now faces four charges that were not included in the original agreement, and the country has not consented to the additional charges, per Bankman-Fried’s counsel.



Federal prosecutors allege Bankman-Fried over the years <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/ftx-bankrupt-hacked-investigated-a-timeline-of-events" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">smuggled $8 billion</a> in customer funds from FTX to sister trading outfit Alameda Research to fund risky market plays and other dodgy dealings. 



A representative for Bankman-Fried declined to comment beyond the filings.&nbsp;



The prosecution has a deadline of May 29 to respond to Bankman-Fried’s request for dismissal. Arguments will be heard by US District Judge Lewis Kaplan on June 15.



Bankman-Fried’s former colleagues, Alameda Research ex-CEO Caroline Ellison, FTX co-founder Gary Wang and FTX’s former engineering director Nishad Singh have all <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/ftx-transferred-money-bankman-fried" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">pleaded guilty to charges</a>.



Bankman-Fried himself is set to face trial on Oct. 2. He has been confined to his parents’ Palo Alto home on house arrest since Dec, with limited access to technology because prosecutors suspect he might try to tamper with witnesses.



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



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Sam Bankman-Fried’s Lawyers Want Most Charges Dropped

Sam Bankman-Fried, who turned from crypto billionaire to villain nearly overnight, sat for back-to-back interviews this week with appearances at the New York Times DealBook symposium and on Good Morning America.



Observers have drawn comparisons with Bernie Madoff, the Wall Street financier turned Ponzi scheme kingpin, who pleaded guilty to 11 federal crimes. And wewly-appointed FTX CEO John Ray III says FTX’s disintegration is <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/ftx-bankruptcy-like-enron">worse than Enron</a>, the energy company that went down as the largest accounting scandal in recent history. 



Crypto Twitter has dragged mainstream media for massaging Bankman-Fried&#8217;s image instead of asking truly tough questions, although Andrew Sorkin was widely thought to have given him a harder time than most. So, here’s a choice selection of Bankman-Fried corkers to get your blood boiling.



<ol class="wp-block-list"><li>‘Got a little cocky’</li></ol>



Bankman-Fried has echoed several of his comments across interviews, but he was smug enough to admit that he may have been overconfident about the potential of his business.



“I think I got a little cocky — I mean, more than a little bit,” he told <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2022/12/01/business/sbf-interview-gma/index.html">ABC’s George Stephanopoulous</a> on Good Morning America.



<ol class="wp-block-list" start="2"><li>‘Close to nothing’</li></ol>



<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/01/business/sam-bankman-fried-interview-sbf-ftx.html">Speaking virtually to Andrew Sorkin</a> of the New York Times, he claimed that he’s lost most of his money and that he didn’t stash away any of it.&nbsp;



He added that he’s disclosing everything he has, and that he has no hidden funds. He’s allegedly down to $100,000 “or something like that” and just has one working credit card.



<ol class="wp-block-list" start="3"><li>Vacation home was not intended to be parents’ ‘long-term property’</li></ol>



The exchange spent millions on at least 19 properties worth $121 million in the Bahamas, according to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/technology/exclusive-bankman-frieds-ftx-parents-bought-bahamas-property-worth-121-mln-2022-11-22/">Reuters</a>. These included at least seven condominiums worth $72 million and a vacation property in which Bankman-Fried’s parents were listed as signatories.&nbsp;



“I think they may have stayed there while working, you know, with the company sometime over the last year. When you look at the rest of it, there were a lot of property purchases in the Bahamas,” Bankman-Fried told Sorkin.



<ol class="wp-block-list" start="4"><li>Mixed messages</li></ol>



Bankman-Fried made some statements that appeared ill-thought-out when asked whether customer funds were used inappropriately. “I didn&#8217;t knowingly commingle funds,” he said. 



“I wasn’t trying to commingle funds,” he added later.



<ol class="wp-block-list" start="5"><li>Ignorance of FTX/Alameda’s balance sheet</li></ol>



Bankman-Fried admitted to not knowing much about the finances of his companies, saying he was “frankly surprised” by how big Alameda’s position was in FTX’s native token FTT.&nbsp;



He also claimed he was not worried about customer losses or potential insolvency until Nov. 2, when CoinDesk published Alameda&#8217;s partial balance sheet.



<ol class="wp-block-list" start="6"><li>Alleged dark money donations to Republicans</li></ol>



Bankman-Fried claimed he donated millions of “about the same amount” to both Democrats ahead of the 2022 midterm elections. Only his donations to Democrats were <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/investment/news/ftx-founder-sam-bankman-fried-donated-40-million-to-political-campaigns-leading-into-the-midterms-leaving-some-concerned-about-cryptos-place-in-washington-report-says/articleshow/95646968.cms">publicly known</a> and well-documented, prior to his recent admission. But he kept the Republican donations quiet.&nbsp;



“All my Republican donations were dark,” he said. “The reason was not for regulatory reasons, it’s because reporters freak the f— out if you donate to Republicans. They’re all super liberal, and I didn’t want to have that fight.”



He has denied making any donations to politicians in the Bahamas.



<ol class="wp-block-list" start="7"><li>Spot money and margin money are totally the same</li></ol>



During a Twitter Spaces appearance on Thursday, Bankman-Fried was asked whether funds for spot and margin accounts were commingled behind the scenes.



“Yes that’s right, in general, balances were generally treated as effectively fungible with each other.”



FTX International offered 20x leverage while FTX US offered 10x with a minimum required balance of $100,000.



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



Have your own favorite Sam Bankman-Fried media quote or tweet from over the years? Let us know in the thread below!



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">When asked if his lawyers thought his interviews were a good idea, Bankman-Fried said “They very much do not.” And reading this, you’ll see why… Add your own favorite SBF quotes below!<a href="https://t.co/WatJn8ylfY">https://t.co/WatJn8ylfY</a>&mdash; Blockworks (@Blockworks_) <a href="https://twitter.com/Blockworks_/status/1598770698679242753?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 2, 2022</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>

7 Revealing Quotes From SBF’s Absurd Media Tour

Jon Rice

From the moment Changpeng ‘CZ’ Zhao announced that he was looking to acquire Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX, skeptics noted that there was one question that didn’t seem to have an obvious answer.



Why bother?



After all, CZ had already essentially driven his rival to the point of insolvency, ruined his reputation, and virtually shut down his business.



So what would Binance have to gain from acquiring a balance sheet that allegedly contains a hole somewhere in the vicinity of $6 billion?



Customers, might be the obvious answer. FTX was the third-largest global exchange by volume, prior to its implosion.



But FTX was already in freefall following CZ’s very public campaign against SBF. Customer faith waned fast as the Binance CEO’s litigation of his concerns intensified, and it’s likely that many of them would have found a new home with Binance anyway.



How about a new foothold in the USA? FTX doesn’t admit US customers, so that makes no sense. And although at one point, Binance returned to the table — albeit briefly — to ask SBF to sweeten the deal and <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/news/1-binance-ftx-deal-is-off-unless-ftx-us-is-part-of-the-package-source/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">throw in FTX.US</a>, this was never a realistic possibility given Binance’s multiple legal entanglements in the US.



Maybe he was attempting to spare contagion in the markets that could have undermined his own entity? As the one who propagated the narrative, we’d have to assume Zhao was taken by surprise by the market reaction. And given his masterclass in the Art of War, that feels like a stretch.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">What was CZ really trying to achieve?</h3>



In fact, it’s hard to find a reason why CZ would be interested in FTX. Its tech wasn’t revolutionary, and its overlap with his existing business simply doesn’t make sense.&nbsp;The market dominance he&#8217;d achieve might even make regulators more inclined to pursue him.



So we’re left with a hypothesis.



Despite his denial that Binance had any kind of ‘master plan’ going into this public feud, we might reasonably imagine that the exact opposite is true. And that perhaps CZ intended to decimate his rival, to utterly defeat him in such a way that there could never be any comeback for the one-time wunderkind of crypto.



And perhaps rather than merely speculate, we can examine the actions, not just the words, of a man who <a href="https://twitter.com/cz_binance/status/1538555154508746754?s=20&amp;t=MG8iDNZ0HmeNreJMGQcJtA">tweeted</a> a Sun Tzu quote in June of 2022: “In the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity.”



And boy, was there a whole lot of chaos this week.



We don’t know — and few appear to have asked — where CoinDesk obtained the partial Alameda balance sheet that started this whole thing. (The same reporter broke the story that Binance was considering backing out of the deal a few days later.)



But given what happened after their story appeared, cui bono?



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Using the media to destroy your opponent</h3>



We have previously not reported that Binance reached out via both official and unofficial channels to two reporters at Blockworks to draw attention to negative articles and third-party research about Sam Bankman-Fried, and to discuss that our media outlet “should look into him”.



Two of these contacts were on October 26th, several days before Alameda’s balance sheet was published by CoinDesk. The other was on November 4th, a couple of days later.



And there’s CZ’s weaponization of Twitter to consider too. For someone who has claimed on multiple occasions not to support Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt (FUD), it’s hard to imagine that publicly announcing you’re liquidating hundreds of millions of dollars of your competitor’s exchange token is anything other than a declaration of war…and a precursor to a crypto bank run.



In later tweets he name-checked LUNA, the failed algorithmic stablecoin project — just in case we didn’t get it the first time — and dutifully posted that “we won’t support people who lobby against other industry players behind their backs” in a clear reference to Bankman-Fried’s reportedly less-than-kind comments about Binance to US legislators.



(It’s also worth noting the timing of this whole affair. SBF had just gone through a grueling public battle over his thoughts on DeFi regulation, which had weakened his public standing considerably for the first time.)



Even if Binance didn’t have Alameda’s balance sheet in its possession, and had no part in leaking it to the press, Zhao’s actions led to the value of FTT dropping precipitously, which — given that the token appeared to be backing loans at FTX — created exactly the conditions for lenders to pull back loans collateralized by FTT. (There is no excuse for FTX’s actions here, by the way, especially if customer funds were involved. It’s appalling, stupid, and possibly illegal. But that’s for another story.)



Fast forward to the announcement that Binance had a non-binding letter of intent to purchase FTX. And later that same day, another tweet:



“Two big lessons:&nbsp;



1: Never use a token you created as collateral.&nbsp;



2: Don’t borrow if you run a crypto business. Don&#8217;t use capital &#8220;efficiently&#8221;. Have a large reserve.”



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">No intention to buy FTX in the first place?</h3>



According to some sources, Binance was ready to pull out of buying FTX after just half a day of due diligence. And when Binance finally announced that they were pulling out of the deal, the price of FTT crashed by yet another 50%, cratering in total by 90% over the course of a week.



Did CZ really intend to buy FTX? A company that he systematically destroyed, publicly and ruthlessly?&nbsp;



Or is it beyond the realm of imagination to suggest that it was merely a ruse to achieve the complete and permanent annihilation of Sam Bankman-Fried’s reputation? Even SBF appears to acknowledge the possibility that this was all a game, in an unverified series of leaked <a href="https://twitter.com/cobie/status/1590610757334728704?s=20&amp;t=ipb7Ug60dE_kf5-lmBIILw" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Slack</a> messages. This is but one theory. Byron Gilliam, master of crypto narratives and Blockworks&#8217; resident newsletter writer (<a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/newsletter/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">sign up</a>, it’s great) <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/newsletter/view/?id=29650985" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">observed a different possibility</a>: That CZ was as astonished as the rest of us. &#8220;But maybe he was just pissed at SBF?



He may not have had any idea what chain of events he’d set off by publicly casting aspersions at his rival and threatening to market-sell his FTT.”



Observers have suggested that the war has set crypto back three, four, even five years.



Even for CZ and his billions, surveying the wreckage that he and Sam have wrought, this must feel like a Pyrrhic victory.



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Did CZ Really Have Any Intention of Buying FTX?

Ben Strack

<div id="highlights-block_628bca0cc69fc" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>FTX has spoken to Webull, Apex Clearing and Public.com, CNBC reported</li>
 <li>Company CEO Sam Bankman-Fried previously told Blockworks he expects a wave of consolidation in the crypto space amid the bear market</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Crypto exchange FTX has reportedly spoken with stock trading startups it may be interested in acquiring, as the company has revealed plans to broaden its offerings to investors.&nbsp;



Sources familiar with the discussions <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/05/23/crypto-exchange-ftx-quietly-shops-for-brokerage-start-ups-amid-move-into-stock-trading-sources-say.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">told CNBC</a> that the Bahamas-based firm has spoken with <a href="https://www.webull.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Webull</a>, <a href="https://www.apexclearing.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Apex Clearing</a> and <a href="https://public.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Public.com</a> in recent months.



A spokesperson for FTX declined to comment.



FTX’s US affiliate <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/ftx-us-launches-zero-commission-stock-trading/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">unveiled its stock platform last week</a>, allowing retail investors to trade stocks and ETFs alongside crypto and non-fungible tokens (NFTs). The retail brokerage accounts can be funded with traditional dollar deposit methods, as well as with fiat-backed stablecoins.



“On any given day, a person might want to buy some bitcoin or they might want to buy some Tesla,” FTX US President Brett Harrison told Blockworks at the time. “They’re not going to want to open two different accounts…and move their savings around between two different applications to do this sort of investing.”



The reported conversations with brokerage companies also follow FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/ftxs-sam-bankman-fried-spots-opportunity-in-troubled-markets/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">buying a 7.6% stake in investing platform Robinhood</a>.



Bankman-Fried told Blockworks last month that he predicts a wave of mergers and acquisitions amid the bear market. He noted that “it wouldn’t be totally shocking” for FTX to acquire some “shrinking” exchanges, noting that the company is always evaluating opportunities.



FTX US <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/ftx-us-brings-crypto-derivatives-to-users-with-ledgerx-acquisition/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">last year bought</a> digital currency futures and options exchange LedgerX, in a move to bring crypto derivatives to its US user base. More recently, it bought a stake in stock exchange operator IEX Group in an effort to establish a simple and transparent market structure for buying and selling digital asset securities.



FTX also <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/ftx-acquires-liquid-group-expanding-presence-in-japan/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">revealed in February</a> it was set to acquire fintech firm Liquid Group in a bid to navigate Japan’s crypto exchange laws.



Dan Keeler contributed to this story.



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FTX Reportedly Seeks Acquisitions in Brokerage Space

<div id="highlights-block_627eb64456f1c" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Bankman-Fried takes a 7.6% stake in investment tool Robinhood through Emergent Fidelity Technologies, of which he is the sole director and majority owner</li>
 <li>The purchased shares were worth roughly $605 million Friday afternoon</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



The head of crypto exchange FTX has bought a 7.6% stake in investing platform Robinhood.&nbsp;



Though Sam Bankman-Fried’s company was not involved in the deal, he has said FTX could participate in the next wave of upcoming mergers and acquisitions he predicts will take place.



Bankman-Fried, FTX’s founder and CEO, purchased roughly 56 million Robinhood shares, according to a recent <a href="https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0001783879/000114036122018827/brhc10037465_sc13d.htm" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">regulatory filing</a>, at a cost of roughly $648 million.&nbsp;



The shares were valued at around $605 million at 3:45 p.m. ET on Friday, up about 25% from the day before, but still less than the price he paid.&nbsp;



The buy was done through Emergent Fidelity Technologies, a company incorporated in Antigua and Barbuda, according to the document. Bankman-Fried is the majority owner of Emergent.



Bankman-Fried declined to comment today on the Robinhood deal, which did not involve FTX, but in a recent interview with Blockworks he said the difficult market conditions in the digital asset space could trigger a wave of M&amp;A activity.&nbsp;



“There’s going to be a ton of M&amp;A,” he said, adding that “it wouldn’t be totally shocking” for FTX to acquire some of the business of exchanges that are shrinking.



FTX’s US affiliate <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/ftx-us-brings-crypto-derivatives-to-users-with-ledgerx-acquisition/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">last year bought</a> digital currency futures and options exchange LedgerX to bring crypto derivatives to its US user base. More recently, FTX <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/ftx-acquires-liquid-group-expanding-presence-in-japan/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">revealed in February</a> it was set to acquire fintech firm Liquid Group in a bid to navigate Japan’s crypto exchange laws.



A Robinhood spokesperson also declined to comment, instead pointing to a Twitter thread the company posted Thursday.&nbsp;



“We’re doubling down on creating a multi-generational company where customers can build wealth for their generations,” the tweet said. “Of course we think it is an attractive investment too. We have the best customer base, are introducing great new products, and we have the team to deliver.”



Robinhood reported a net loss of $392 million in the first quarter.&nbsp;



The company’s net revenues were $299 million in the first three months of 2022, down from $522 million in the first quarter of 2021. Transaction-based revenues were $218 million, about half of what they were in the year-ago period. Crypto transactions accounted for $54 million of those revenues, down from $88 million in 2021’s first quarter.



Dan Keeler contributed to this story.

FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried Spots Opportunity in Troubled Markets

Jacquelyn Melinek

<div id="highlights-block_6213aeea3e027" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>FTX Gaming will be a “crypto-as-a-service” platform where gaming firms can launch new tokens and offer support for NFTs</li>
 <li>This news comes a few months after FTX, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Solana Ventures announced their investment to create a $100 million Web3 gaming initiative</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Cryptocurrency exchange FTX is jumping into the blockchain-based gaming business with its own unit aiming to reach mainstream audiences.



The new division will encourage more game creators to use cryptocurrencies, blockchain networks and NFTs, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-02-21/ftx-enters-gaming-as-backlash-grows-against-crypto-s-incursion?utm_campaign=socialflow-organic&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=twitter&amp;utm_content=crypto&amp;sref=3REHEaVI" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Bloomberg reported</a>.



FTX Gaming, run through the exchange’s FTX US subsidiary, is designed as a “crypto-as-a-service” platform, where game developers can launch tokens and build NFTs (non-fungible tokens) into their online worlds.



The company is looking to hire two software engineers, ideally aiming for gaming enthusiasts with developer experience in Unity, a gaming development platform.



<a href="https://jobs.lever.co/FTXUS/f91dfa92-38eb-4992-85fb-70fb403db414" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">One</a> of the hires is tasked with product development, plus blockchain integration and improving developer tools for game studios. The other <a href="https://jobs.lever.co/FTXUS/1a47a2a9-2fe4-4d7f-86ee-6eb2bc7b67c3" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">role</a> is focused on partnering with game studios and integrating blockchain technology.



A representative for FTX was not immediately available for comment Monday.



The rollout comes months after FTX, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Solana Ventures partnered on a $100 million Web3 gaming funding initiative. It is focused on supporting game studios, technology and projects that focus on the overlap between blockchains and gaming, Blockworks previously <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/ftx-solana-ventures-and-lightspeed-create-100m-web3-gaming-investment/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a>.



In the past 12 months, blockchain games like <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/axie-infinity-program-lead-2022-will-be-all-about-gameplay/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Axie Infinity</a> grew in popularity and have held steady around 1 million users across almost 400 active blockchain games, according to DappRadar <a href="https://dappradar.com/topic/games" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">data</a>. Users peaked around 1.5 million in early January but have since retracted 28% to 1.09 million.



“In many ways, it could be argued that blockchain’s application to gaming is a no-brainer because gamers are already accustomed to tokenization and purchasing in-game items,” a Solana Ventures representative said at the time.



There’s a <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/sam-bankman-fried-gaming-nfts-have-mainstream-potential/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">“decent probability”</a> that gaming NFTs could be the driving force behind bringing crypto to mainstream audiences, FTX’s CEO and Founder Sam Bankman-Fried said during a panel at the <a href="https://www.bloomberglive.com/event/bloomberg-financial-innovation-summit-november-4/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Bloomberg Financial Innovation Summit</a> in November.



Bankman-Fried, however, said there’s going to be a noticeable difference between crypto companies creating games and traditional developers looking to add digital assets to their franchise titles.&nbsp;



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">“I think, frankly, it’s really hard to make a really engaging video game,” he said. “I don’t think I can do it. It would take a really long time to build up that expertise. So, when you hear about top-tier gaming publishers looking to introduce crypto into their system, I’m pretty bullish on that.”</blockquote>



Adding a liquid marketplace in games with massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs), like Eve Online or World of Warcraft, could speed up the integration, he said.



“One thing I’m really excited about is you take a top-tier gaming studio, that’s making a great game and wants to have market mechanics in it and wants to have real user-ownership of the digital assets in it and wants to use blockchain technology, payment rails and NFTs to enable that,” Bankman-Fried said. “That’s where I would guess you’re going to see the biggest adoption early on.”



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