Here’s the apology letter Sam Bankman-Fried sent to FTX employees

FTX’s ex-CEO Sam Bankman-Fried blamed his “irrational decisions” on “sh—y” circumstances in a letter obtained by CNBC that was sent to employees of the bankrupt crypto exchange.

Bankman-Fried said he “froze up in the face of pressure and leaks” as his crypto empire quickly lost investor confidence and customers rapidly withdrew billions of dollars from the platform.

“I lost track of the most important things in the commotion of company growth. I care deeply about you all, and you were my family, and I’m sorry,” continued the letter.

“It’s too little too late,” a current FTX employee told CNBC. “I’ve never seen an empathetic version of Sam, so I can’t imagine he’ll change his tune now.” 

Bankman-Fried did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Bankman-Fried post-mortem to employees outlines the ex-CEO’s take on the events that led to FTX’s ultimate downfall, along with an approximated accounting. The crypto exchange went from a $32 billion valuation to filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in about a week.

Even as Bankman-Fried accepted blame for the course of events, he still appeared convinced that he was close to saving his crypto empire in the final hours before it entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

“We likely could have raised significant funding; potential interest in billions of dollars of funding came in roughly eight minutes after I signed the Chapter 11 docs,” wrote Bankman-Fried.

“Between those funds, the billions of dollars of collateral the company still held, and the interest we’d received from other parties, I think that we probably could have returned large value to customers and saved the business,” continued the letter.

Read the full letter from Bankman-Fried below.

“Hi all—

I feel deeply sorry about what happened. I regret what happened to all of you. And I regret what happened to customers. You gave everything you could for FTX, and stood by the company—and me.

I didn’t mean for any of this to happen, and I would give anything to be able to go back and do things over again. You were my family. I’ve lost that, and our old home is an empty warehouse of monitors. When I turn around, there’s no one left to talk to. I disappointed all of you, and when things broke down I failed to communicate. I froze up in the face of pressure and leaks and the Binance LOI and said nothing. I lost track of the most important things in the commotion of company growth. I care deeply about you all, and you were my family, and I’m sorry.

I was CEO, and so it was my duty to make sure that, ultimately, the right things happened at FTX. I wish that I had been more careful.

I want to give you a better description of what happened—one I should have written out…