Digital asset information platform The Tie has compiled many of the tweets Sam Bankman-Fried has deleted in the past year. It showcases how tons of people are scrambling to sever ties with Bankman-Fried and FTX — and more importantly, gives insight into which of his own posts he doesn’t want you to see.
The Tie shared a list of Bankman-Fried’s deleted tweets on Tuesday. It archives every post and, every 15 minutes, adds any deleted tweets to a Google Sheet — tracking all of Bankman-Fried’s erasures made in the past year. The majority of them are retweets (these haven’t been deleted himself, but rather reflect other people deleting posts that he happened to share).
It should be noted that The Tie admits its list is not exhaustive — since it captures every 15 minutes, it’s possible that some deleted tweets fall through the cracks. Indeed, Protos was able to identify at least one post deleted by Bankman-Fried in the past year that did not show up on the sheet.
A whole host of former FTX employees and partners have deleted tweets that mention the firm, or its curly-haired leader, in the past year. As previously reported, Bankman-Fried deleted the infamous post in which he claimed “assets are fine” just days before filing for bankruptcy — but the Google Sheet reveals a few more that haven’t aged well at all.
Bankman-Fried deleted tweet slamming Binance chief
The most interesting portion of The Tie’s list concerns the few tweets deleted by Sam Bankman-Fried himself. He deleted his post in a thread by FTX Digital Markets’ co-CEO Ryan Salame, in which he praised Binance chief Changpeng Zhao (CZ). This happened weeks prior to FTX’s “liquidity crunch,” which led to CZ teasing a bailout that never happened.
“Been an absolute pleasure watching [CZ] have the extremely difficult but transformative debates on twitter this past week to ensure the crypto industry moves forward in the best possible way,” Salame wrote on October 30.
Bankman-Fried has since deleted his reply: “Excited to see him repping the industry in DC going forward! Uh, he is allowed to go to DC, right?”
The former billionaire is referring to suspicions that the Binance chief hasn’t been to the US in years because he fears getting arrested. CZ denies this. Since posting, Bankman-Fried’s dig has developed many levels of irony — a fact not lost on Bankman-Fried himself, if deletion is any indication.
He also deleted a reply to actor and crypto skeptic Ben McKenzie. He criticized the former billionaire for misleading investors by falsely claiming FTX was insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).
In July, then-FTX president Brett Harrison tweeted that funds invested by clients were FDIC-insured.
The FDIC wrote a letter to FTX the following month, demanding they stop making false statements, as funds were in fact never insured by the entity.
Bankman-Fried wrote in a now-deleted tweet that while FTX doesn’t have FDIC insurance, the banks it does business with do. He doubled down on the fact that it was a misunderstanding rather than an intentional misdirect.
McKenzie, however, was not convinced. “Sam, c’mon!” He wrote. “It was wildly misleading… Apologies are good, but transparency is better.”
Recently, Bankman-Fried went back and deleted the reply he made to McKenzie in a thread: “I honestly disagree with your statement? idk, the statement accurately stated that there are now individual, direct deposit accounts at a bank available on FTX US, and did not say that FTX US was FDIC insured, nor did it imply any non-fiat assets ever were,” (his emphasis).
To that, McKenzie inquired why Bankman-Fried apologized if it was an “accurate” statement. Curiously, Bankman-Fried has not deleted the rebuttal to that response:
“I think our statement was accurate but also could have been misinterpreted, and that it would have made sense for us to have been clearer than we were to make sure that it was interpreted correctly.”
“Sam, this is tiresome,” McKenzie finished. “You run your company. Be responsible for it. You should not need a regulator to tell you to cut it out.”
FTX all-stars deleted posts shared by Bankman-Fried
Protos previously reported that in the wake of FTX’s demise, several employees deleted tweets or took their accounts private.
The Tie’s sheet shows that companies like Star Atlas, Paradigm, Stockmart, and Blockfolio (acquired by FTX in 2020) have all recently deleted their FTX partnership posts, which were retweeted by Bankman-Fried. Star Atlas’s DAO token sale went live on FTX in August of last year — two posts retweeted by its founder have been deleted. Since then, its chief exec Michael Wagner disclosed that the firm has been heavily impacted by FTX’s bankruptcy.
“Unfortunately, the chain of events surrounding FTX’s demise over the last week has detracted significantly from the positive high that was Solana Breakpoint. Star Atlas has lost a significant portion of its liquidity in the FTX freeze,” the CEO stated last week.
Some of Hollywood’s elites have deleted tweets involving Bankman-Fried and FTX. Former NFL star Tom Brady and his ex-wife Gisele Bündchen became ambassadors for the crypto exchange, filmed a $20 million ad campaign, and received equity stakes in the company. Both have since deleted all mention of FTX and Bankman-Fried from their Twitter accounts.
FTX’s official Twitter account deleted a tweet this past year that welcomed former Boston Red Sox baseball star David Ortiz into the ambassador family, which was shared by Bankman-Fried. However, at press time, Ortiz had not deleted his own numerous posts endorsing FTX — neither has NBA star Steph Curry.
Other recently deleted tweets that were shared by Bankman-Fried include one by John Darsie, the managing director of SALT — a ‘global thought leadership forum’ spearheaded by Trump’s former communications guy Anthony Scaramucci.
SALT partnered with FTX to launch Crypto Bahamas, a star-studded event attended by Brady and Bündchen last year. Speakers included former UK prime minister Tony Blair and former US president Bill Clinton.
It’s doubtful that this year’s upcoming installment, set for April, will occur. Darsie deleted a tweet mentioning the speaker lineup for 2022’s edition — in fact, his entire Twitter account has been deleted.
Source : Protos
