How FTX went from $32 billion to bankruptcy in 4 days

Thanks to Monarch for partnering with me! Start your free trial and get 50% off your first year of total money clarity using my link https://monarchmoney.yt.link/rGC30md or code girdley50 for 50% Off Monarch Core tier. My company Near helps founders and operators hire world-class talent in Latin America — fast and without the hassle. I've seen firsthand what's possible when you go beyond borders to build a team. → http://links.girdley.com/near FTX went from one of the most valuable companies in crypto to one of the biggest financial collapses in modern business history. This video breaks down how Sam Bankman-Fried built the FTX empire, how Alameda Research and the FTT token made the whole thing unstable, and what actually caused the company to implode. Get the 2-minute cheat sheet for this video → https://girdley.com/youtube 👇 SUBSCRIBE for more business breakdowns    / @michael-girdley   ------------------------------------------------------------------ ► Get my weekly letter to business owners: essential insights to run, grow, and stay ahead in your business → https://links.girdley.com/newsletter-yt ► For sponsorships or inquiries please reach out to: [email protected] ► Do you have a hat I should wear in a video? Send it to us: [email protected] ► Free events on all things small business: https://links.girdley.com/lectures-yt ► Deep dives on businesses for sale:    / @acquisitionsanonymouspodcast   ► Follow me on Twitter/X: https://x.com/girdley ------------------------------------------------------------------ Sam Bankman-Fried started out at Jane Street, learned arbitrage, then launched Alameda Research in 2017 before rolling out FTX in 2019. At the height of the crypto boom, that combination looked unstoppable. Venture firms poured in capital, FTX bought naming rights, hired celebrity spokespeople, and pushed Sam as the trustworthy genius who was going to clean up crypto while giving most of his money away. But the structure at the center of the business was badly compromised from the start. FTX was supposed to be a neutral exchange and Alameda was supposed to be a separate trading firm. In reality, Sam controlled both. The transcript lays out how Alameda had special treatment inside FTX, including the ability to run negative balances without the normal liquidation rules that would hit everyone else. That setup let the entire business expand on top of customer funds, risky trades, and a token FTX had effectively created itself. As long as confidence stayed high, the machine kept running. Once CoinDesk obtained Alameda’s balance sheet in November 2022 and Binance moved to dump its FTT position, confidence vanished and the whole thing unraveled almost instantly. What happened to FTX is not just a crypto story. It is a business breakdown about incentives, governance failure, venture capital hype, media mythmaking, and what happens when a founder starts believing his own moral narrative. By the end, John Ray, the same executive who cleaned up Enron, said he had never seen such a complete failure of corporate controls. That is the real lesson at the center of the rise and fall of FTX.