[Feature] The Crypto ‘Super Villains’ & What They Have Been Up To

Imagine your friendly neighbourhood Spiderman or the ever so patriotic Captain America doing a 180 and becoming as bad as they are good. Today, that is what we have here in the crypto universe, in a sense.

One of the latest and more monumental news in the world of crypto, was the collapse of FTX. How about the man behind it all, Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF)? Prior to it all, he was deemed as an endearing, friendly face of crypto who was also an effective altruist. Thereafter, his every action or rather, lack of action, was perceived negatively by most ─ he became a villain of sorts.

SBF is just the latest crypto ‘super villain’ to join the list. Let us take a look at the key crypto ‘super villains’ as well as a sneak peek at their latest activity.

The Guy Who Just Would Not Shut Up

Common sense or logic dictates that when you are in the face of criminal law, the less you spill the better. However, this logic has been tossed out the window when it comes to SBF; from cryptic poetic references to casual conversations, legitimate interviews, supposedly private messages, internal letter, and more, the list does not seem like it will end anytime soon. Check out some of what he had been up to: https://www.coinlive.com/news/detail/?id=19599 and https://www.coinlive.com/news/detail/?id=19857.

His latest appearance was just yesterday when he was on his first live interview since the collapse of FTX, at NY Times DealBook Summit. He told Andrew Ross Sorkin via video from Bahamas, that the company’s downfall was caused by “a massive failure of oversight on my part.”

SBF blamed the spectacular collapse of FTX on poor oversight and client losses but denied he had knowingly committed fraud. If he made a mistake, according to SBF, was not keeping track of the size of the bad bets his clients were taking. “I was as truthful as I am knowledgeable to be. There are some things I wish I knew more about,” he responded when asked whether his account of what went haywire was truthful.

Many are wondering why, he as the core person in the middle of this mess, is speaking so much under investigation. He replied that it was his “duty”. “The classic advice is ‘don’t say anything, recede into a hole,” he said, but he would have none of that. “That’s not who I am, and that’s not who I want to be. I have a duty to talk and explain what happened,” he clarified.

Spilling so much and so wantonly might just come back to bite him in the end since whatever he said can and very likely will be used against him in court. SBF is being investigated by the authorities in numerous jurisdictions, including the Bahamas, Turkey, and the United States. He is currently in the Bahamas but said that there was no legal risk for him in returning to the U.S. and expressed that he could envision himself eventually explaining to lawmakers what went wrong at FTX.

His next activity? It seems likely that he will be joining Mario Nawfal at The Roundtable so be sure to tune in!

The ‘Lucky’ Guy Who Made It Onto Interpol’s Red List

Before SBF took the crown for the current crypto super villain, Terra’s Do Kwon was the only contender for the number-one villain spot. Kwon became a superstar almost overnight but it was evident on multiple occasions that he did not know how to handle fame. He called himself the “Master of Stablecoin” and dismissed others who had not happened to invent a flawed money-printing algorithmic stablecoin as “poor”.

Terra’s collapse led to not only huge financial losses, but also suicide cases but Kwon had shown little remorse. He tried to relaunch Terra even after repeated calls to vanish from crypto indefinitely and has been very active on Twitter after FTX’s meltdown, with his retweets and his own tweets. Below is his latest tweet at the time of writing.

During the FTX collapse, he did surface with a whole bunch of tweets as you can see below:

As of the mid of this month, it was reported that Kwon claimed he is at his house while South Korean authorities believe he is on the run. It is alleged that he is in Europe after fleeing from Singapore, but who knows, really?

The Fallen Duo

Three Arrows Capital’s Su Zhu and Kyle Davies founded the company in 2012 and by 2021, were hailed as geniuses. But, it was Zhu, with his mysterious persona and cryptic, zen-like tweets, who stood out more. When it was clear 3AC was bust, both vanished effectively: no more tweets, no-shows at the office, not answering calls, etc. They have since resurfaced on Twitter to goad SBF following FTX’s meltdown. Below are Zhu’s latest tweets at the time of writing.

Below you can also see him goading SBF:

His partner-in-crime so to speak, is not too different either. Davies appeared on CNBC’s Squawk Box to discuss the failed exchange of colluding with Alameda to trade against 3AC clients, claiming the public nature of the implosion has allowed him to speak more freely. He tagged SBF in his tweet on 24 November as since below.

Some of his latest tweets:

From heroes to villains, who would have guessed? How will these crypto fallen stars advance ─ only time will tell.