FTX Shows Crypto Still the ‘Wild West’

FTX Cryptocurrency Exchange rattled the financial world this week when a crisis of investor confidence triggered a run, forcing the company to scramble for a buyer or bailout to avoid collapse. Joining the What Goes Up podcast to discuss the chaos that ensued are Sadie Raney, chief executive of the crypto hedge fund Strix Leviathan, and Nico Cordeiro, its chief investment officer.

The firm said it had a limited amount of funds with FTX frozen. “We’ve been through a number of market crashes,” says Raney. “We’ve used Voyager in the past. We also used BlockFi. And when there were some indicators that maybe they were, I guess you could say over their skis, we stopped trading with them.”

“This one,” Raney said, “I don’t think anyone saw coming.”

Cordeiro adds that while their firm has “some funds frozen there,” it was “a small portion of our portfolio allocated there—simply because this space is the wild west.” See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.