Report: Bankman-Fried’s Alleged Victims Still Believe in Crypto

Despite losing millions when FTX collapsed, some investors still believe in the promise of cryptocurrency.

As CNBC reported Monday (Oct. 2) — in advance of a documentary on the subject — FTX investors and consumers say that while they still haven’t gotten their money back, they still plan to invest in the crypto sector.

Among the people profiled is Evan Luthra, an app developer who lost $2 million in FTX’s multi-billion dollar implosion last year.

Although he knows that FTX’s bankruptcy means he wouldn’t have “access to any of this money for the next few years,” Luthra continues to speak at crypto conferences.

“I do want everybody to understand that the mistake here was not bitcoin, the mistake was not crypto,” Luthra told CNBC. “The fundamental reason why we buy bitcoin, why we use bitcoin has not changed.”

PYMNTS explored this idea soon after FTX went under last year in a conversation with Hanna Halaburda, associate professor at NYU’s Stern School of Business.

She said that crypto industry critics were wrongly using FTX’s demise to paint the entire cryptocurrency market as a scam.

“In this case, it wasn’t a crypto failure. It was a very old-fashioned fraud … The exchange failed due to stealing and lying. And we already have laws against that,” Halaburda told PYMNTS CEO Karen Webster.

“Talking about FTX, it really doesn’t matter whether they were dealing in crypto and tulips bulbs, or pieces of gold. They were just mismanaging what they were the trusted custodians of.”

Another FTX customer, Portland, Oregon resident Jake Thacker, told CNBC he lost hundreds of thousands when FTX folded, just after losing his tech industry job.

“I’m in quite a big hole right now,” he said. “I’m probably going to have to file for bankruptcy.”

Still, he would encourage people to invest in cryptocurrency, though he would warn them, “Here’s what I learned, don’t make the same mistakes I did.”

The CNBC documentary is timed to coincide with the beginning of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried’s criminal trial, due to begin Tuesday (Oct. 3) in federal court in Manhattan.

As PYMNTS reported Sunday (Oct. 1), that trial is expected to include testimony from FTX’s customers, investors and former executives as prosecutors try to show that Bankman-Fried orchestrated one of the largest white-collar crimes in U.S. history.