FTT, the native token of the defunct crypto exchange FTX, momentarily jumped 30% as Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder and former CEO of the platform posted on X for the first time in two years.
Bankman-Fried shared a series of posts on Monday discussing employee terminations and corporate management challenges, sparking widespread speculation among members of the crypto community who have monitored his every move since FTX’s spectacular implosion in 2022.
SBF Shares Candid Reflections On Firing Employees
Bankman-Fried kicked off his 10-part thread with a reference to his present situation, writing “I have a lot of sympathy for gov’t employees: I, too, have not checked my email for the past few (hundred) days,” adding that “being unemployed is a lot less relaxing than it looks.”
United States President Donald Trump and the Department of Government Efficiency (D.O.G.E), helmed by eccentric billionaire Elon Musk, have laid off a broad swath of the workforce across several federal agencies. Reuters reported that over 90,000 jobs have been annihilated recently, with the potential for a second wave of job cuts.
“Firing people is one of the hardest things to do in the world. It sucks for everyone involved,” he wrote, offering insight into the complexities of managing layoffs.
The disgraced crypto mogul stressed that terminations are often a result of “the company just doesn’t have the right job for them,” despite the workers’ supposed qualifications.
“It isn’t the employee’s fault, when that happens. It isn’t their fault if their employer doesn’t really know what to do with them, or doesn’t really have anyone to effectively manage them. It isn’t their fault if internal politics lead their department to lose its way,” SBF posited.
Bankman-Fried is currently serving a 25-year sentence at the Brooklyn prison for defrauding customers of billions of dollars in what has been described as one of the biggest financial frauds in American history.
FTT Token Reacts To SBF’s Social Media Return
The 32-year-old fallen crypto star has been seeking a presidential pardon after President Trump pardoned Silk Road creator Ross Ulbricht. SBF’s parents have been in discussions with people close to Trump’s inner circle to explore the possibility of clemency, Bloomberg reported last month, citing unnamed sources privy to the matter.
The FTT token briefly soared more than 30% from $1.60 to a local high of $2.07 following SBF’s social media comeback, according to data tracked by CoinGecko. The token’s price has since retraced to $1.67 as of press time.
Meanwhile, Bankman-Fried has appealed his conviction, arguing that he was “presumed guilty — before he was even charged.”
