There was almost too much to unpack on Twitter this week — from SBF memes to Elon tweets to everything else.
Gm anon
2022 has been quite the year, hasn’t it? Every time you think “it can’t get any worse,” it gets 1000x worse.
This week’s round-up will, obviously, cover almost exclusively anything and everything related to the FTX bankruptcy. Check our Explaining the FTX Collapse article for a full breakdown of what happened in this craziest and most painful of crypto weeks.
Here we’ll cover everything that did not make the cut: the narratives, the conspiracies, the revelations, and everything in between.
Who Went Viral This Time?
Let’s start with the one person that benefited from this fiasco: Elon Musk.
Why?
Because Twitter usage is, according to him, at an all-time high. Which is not a surprise at all. Tweets were going viral by the minute as the news and revelations kept pouring in. As for Elon himself, he also had something to say about FTX:
But we’ll get to Elon in more detail in a bit.
You can guess that it was hard to pick a few viral threads from the dozens and hundreds that flooded Twitter last week. But there were a couple of narratives worth looking at.
One is that some people did warn about FTX/Alameda being a Ponzi scheme. One of these legends is Marc Cohodes, who laid it all out in this video one month before it went down:
Another group of people deserves some credit: the crypto skeptics. They are often laughed at and shamed. But many bring up valid points of criticism (we reviewed some). Crypto proponents should probably engage with and learn from the naysayers more, especially after this catastrophic year. Ed Elson named some of them here:
Then there’s the other end of the spectrum. Those who got completely blindsided and bamboozled by FTX. Fair enough, many of us did, but some more than others, like Kevin O’Leary from Shark Tank:
The “paid spokespersons and shareholders” will be able to survive the hit from an FTX collapse. But many retail investors and traders will not. The litigation will take years and most will not see any substantial amount of money recovered from FTX. In essence, the little guy always gets it the worst.
Who Is Arguing In Way Too Public A Place?
Crypto Twitter was remarkably united this week. The pitchforks were out against the new boogeyman: SBF himself.
But there were also discussions around another topic that is guaranteed to come up even more: the regulation banhammer.
Dennis Porter reminded us that FTX really only followed the business model of regular banks:
To which you can respond with Erik Voorhees’ argument that both are essentially the same, but one gets bailed out and the other one does not:
Maybe that will change soon, though. Because regulation was always coming. But now, it will probably come harder and faster than expected. That is not fair, as Jake Chervinsky points out:
FTX was an offshore exchange, and its regulated U.S. branch was not spared from SBF’s illegal business practices. But is that understood by politicians? Will they even care? Given how much the SEC cozied up to FTX, probably no:
Crypto Twitter also pointed out who and what idea actually failed:
But as long as crypto as an industry cannot stand united, it will probably not be able to stand against hostile regulators. Erik Voorhees reminded everyone of that fact when he pointed out that the battle lines are between centralization and custody, not between different coins:
The Bitcoin maxi vs crypto maxi debate will definitely have a revival after this episode. More drama is guaranteed…
Elon Building Twitter
Elon must have had quite the busy week.
In between calling BS on Sam Bankman-Fried and shilling Dogecoin on the Twitter space discussing the FTX collapse, he rolled out the blue tick verification on Twitter. That…could have gone better. In fact, the feature created a whole new type of Twitter user: the impersonatooor.
Only one way to fight these pranksters:
Elon also announced he will go full experimentooor on Twitter:
More drama is guaranteed here as well. Lawyers are already warning that these “dumb things” could incur fines for Twitter. Other sources report that Twitter may not make it through the next year financially. For now, Elon’s plan seems to be…TweetFi:
Twitter is definitely not going to get boring any time soon.
Saylor Saying Stuff
Michael Saylor also made some headlines last week, but not in the ways he would have liked. With Bitcoin going down again, the inevitable question came up again: what is Michael Saylor’s liquidation price???
Well, here’s your answer:
In short, the loan could get margin called around $13,000. But Mr. Saylor can just put up more collateral in that case. Not ideal, but not a liquidation either.
The man himself also had something to say about the FTX fiasco. In an interview with CNBC, he said that “Bitcoin is in a dysfunctional relationship with crypto.”
Maybe that would be another idea for potential future verification badges:
Talk of the Town
This week’s talk of the town was all kinds of FTX gossip and conspiracy theories.
Exhibit A: the purported use of stimulants at FTX:
Exhibit B: FTX executives were, uhm, romantically involved:
Exhibit C: SBF and Chef Nomi (Sushiswap founder) sure sound a lot alike when they ask for forgiveness:
Exhibit D: SBF can play League of Legends while pitching venture capitalists and still get as much funding as he likes:
Final exhibit: SBF sure had a lot of close ties to Gary Gensler and other high-ranking politicians:
If you want to dive even deeper down the FTX rabbit hole, check out this comprehensive collection of sources about the FTX downfall by Trung Phan.
Our Favorite Coinfession
“Look kiddo, you got a lot of heart, but it’s still not too late to get out of this…”
Memes
It’s been a rough week. Having a laugh is the best you can do now. And the memes this week truly delivered. Here are the three finest FTX meme videos:
CZ setting it all in motion:
Charlie Munger celebrating crypto’s downfall:
See you next, anon. And for crying out loud, withdraw everything that you cannot afford to lose from centralized exchanges! (This is not financial advice).
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