Shalini Nagarajan

The meltdown of crypto exchange FTX is heavily impacting markets — but on a more personal level, employees who believed they worked for one of the most credible crypto platforms are reeling.



Zane Tackett, who was FTX’s head of institutional sales, resigned from the firm on Tuesday, but wanted to stay and help out where he could. But he was quickly booted from work platforms without warning.



&#8220;Went to check slack and noticed my account was deactivated. No heads up or anything, just suddenly lost access. Gmail and shit deactivated too. Was a pretty damn good [two] and a half years outside of the last week,&#8221; he <a href="https://twitter.com/tackettzane/status/1590836780731109377" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">tweeted</a>.



Tackett held most of his crypto assets on exchange at FTX and claims he “lost a lot of money.” He didn’t specify exactly how much is still stuck there, just that he was down around 80%.



Although, he <a href="https://twitter.com/tackettzane/status/1590792225306206209" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">tweeted</a> that he&#8217;d foolishly sent an additional $700,000 to FTX before the exchange paused withdrawals. Now, like most of its users, he isn’t sure if he’ll get it back.



“I had no idea we were in trouble before Sam&#8217;s tweet,” he told Blockworks in a message. When asked whether Bankman-Fried was saying or doing anything to reassure employees, Tackett said: “He&#8217;s not.”



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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">same thing happened to employees. most of us kept significant portions of our net worth there. i&#39;m down ~80% from this&mdash; Zane Tackett (@tackettzane) <a href="https://twitter.com/tackettzane/status/1590878753835880448?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 11, 2022</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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The former executive, who said he <a href="https://twitter.com/tackettzane/status/1590870555527630848">worked 17-hour days</a>, added that others were more heavily <a href="https://twitter.com/tackettzane/status/1590925063062441985" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">impacted</a>, many of them FTX employees who kept &#8220;significant portions&#8221; of their net worths on the platform.



Tackett informed VIP clients of his resignation this week, according to a <a href="https://twitter.com/AutismCapital/status/1590923422594629632/photo/1" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">message</a> seen on Twitter. “We were assured in Slack channels from execs that FTX was solvent, had enough funds to cover customers assets plus additional funds in reserve, and that everything was all fine,” he tweeted.



FTX overnight <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/news/ftx-re-enables-withdrawals-but-only-in-bahamas/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">opened up withdrawals</a> for accounts belonging to residents of the Bahamas, where the firm is headquartered. It&#8217;s unclear exactly how many FTX staff reside there, and the company didn’t return Blockworks’ request for comment by press time.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">FTX exchange collapse threatens effective altruists</h3>



The derivatives exchange had boasted a philanthropic arm called the Future Fund, which handed out grants and investments directed at serving future generations. But its members have now quit.



“We are now unable to perform our work or process grants, and we have fundamental questions about the legitimacy and integrity of the business operations that were funding the FTX Foundation and the Future Fund,” they wrote in a <a href="https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/xafpj3on76uRDoBja/the-ftx-future-fund-team-has-resigned-1" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">post</a> dated Nov. 11. “As a result, we resigned earlier today.”



Among members who resigned was Will MacAksill, an influential figure in the effective altruism movement and Bankman-Fried associate, who <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/news/sam-bankman-fried-elon-musk-weighed-joint-effort-to-acquire-twitter/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">tried to set up a meeting</a> between the FTX CEO and Elon Musk for a “joint effort” to acquire Twitter.



They added it’s unlikely the fund will be able to execute commitments to grants already made. As of June this year, the fund invested <a href="https://ftxfuturefund.org/future-fund-june-2022-update/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$132 million</a> across 262 grants and investments.&nbsp;&nbsp;



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Crypto

FTX Staff Lost ‘Significant Portions’ of Net Worth on Exchange

Ornella Hernandez

FTX.com paused processing withdrawals on the platform Tuesday as its solvency crisis became acute, and executives <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/news/ftx-turns-to-apollo-in-latest-bailout-bid/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">search for new funding</a>. 



Earlier today, blockchain analytics platform Nansen first <a href="https://twitter.com/Blockanalia/status/1590736121730076672?s=20&amp;t=NCx6ZW7yFE3uX5Ma9QzvoA" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">noticed</a> limited withdrawal activity appeared to pick back up again and tracked up to $7.2 million taken off FTX.



Most FTX customers are still frozen out of withdrawing funds, but the troubled crypto exchange <a href="https://twitter.com/FTX_Official/status/1590783569471115264?s=20&amp;t=0o-O0z_gAH3OukZhY1OoLQ" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">confirmed</a> via Twitter that individuals within the Bahamas were permitted to do so. <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/news/bahamas-becoming-crypto-hub/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">FTX has been headquartered</a> on the island since April.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">1) Per our Bahamian HQ&#39;s regulation and regulators, we have begun to facilitate withdrawals of Bahamian funds. As such, you may have seen some withdrawals processed by FTX recently as we complied with the regulators.&mdash; FTX (@FTX_Official) <a href="https://twitter.com/FTX_Official/status/1590783569471115264?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 10, 2022</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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This means that FTX likely prioritized its employees or insiders who had accounts with verified local Bahamas addresses. It added that it is “working on additional routes to enable withdrawals for the rest of our userbase” around the world.&nbsp;



One former staff member, Zane Tackett, resigned from his position as head of institutional sales at FTX and <a href="https://twitter.com/tackettzane/status/1590541239619059713?s=20&amp;t=MiXz6NaZs6Xe10xCJo62Iw" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">confirmed</a> on Twitter that he “stored a huge portion of my money on ftx.” 



Customers without Bahamian accounts, who have requested withdrawals over the past few days may have to continue waiting.



Only holders of Tron-based tokens TRX, BTT, JST, SUN, and HT have been allowed to swap assets from FTX 1:1 to external wallets, thanks to an agreement with Tron, <a href="https://help.ftx.com/hc/en-us/articles/10739365280276-FTX-Announcement-Regarding-the-Tron-Credit-Facility" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">announced on FTX.com</a>. That has led to a peculiar situation whereby tron (TRX), for instance on FTX is trading for roughly 7 times the market price elsewhere.



Additionally, FTX US, a separate entity, announced on its website Thursday that trading “may be halted” in a few days.



“Please close down any positions you want to close down. Withdrawals are and will remain open. We will give updates as we have them” FTX US said.



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