The now-collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX received lots of support from outside groups along the way, including think tanks.
Here is more from Bloomberg:
"No one saw this coming" has been a common refrain in the financial world since the swift disintegration of Sam Bankman-Fried's cryptocurrency empire. Nowhere is that sentiment more plain to see than in the letters sent to US regulators in support of FTX's application for a controversial plan that would have revolutionized trading of derivatives, a heavily regulated corner of Wall Street.
From Fidelity Investments to Fortress Investment Group, Susquehanna International Group and Virtu Financial, from faculty members at Georgetown, the University of Chicago, William & Mary and Stanford, from the Jones Day law firm and the Heritage Foundation think tank, hundreds of letters in support of FTX’s plan landed with the CFTC earlier this year.
In Oct. 2022, think tank Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) hosted FTX co-founder and CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) for an event on the future of cryptocurrency.
Some think tanks have allied themselves with or received money from the FTX Foundation, and the collapse of FTX endangers SBF's philanthropic gifts, both through the FTX Foundation and through other non-profits.
SBF has been a proponent of the "effective altruism" movement which believes in prioritizing donations to projects that have the largest impact on the most number of people.
