FTX loses Future Fund team and head of institutional sales

The FTX institutional sales desk had no knowledge of the cryptocurrency exchange’s potential insolvency during the current week. This was stated by Zane Tackett, the team’s head, The Block reports, citing his letter to clients.

“First and foremost, I would like to make it crystal clear that the VIP team remained completely in the dark and in no way knew about FTX’s insolvency or that user assets were not 1:1 backed at any point,” he clarified.

In a comment to the publication, Tackett said he wanted to ensure that clients do not blame his staff for assurances that things were normal.

“They were also misled,” the top executive noted.

According to sources, withdrawal problems after the announcement of a possible takeover of FTX by Binance led to tensions between senior management and the institutional-sales desk.

On November 11, Tackett said his Slack account had been deactivated, as had the corporate Google account.

pic.twitter.com/dO4BGl86q6

— Zane Tackett (@tackettzane) November 10, 2022

The Future Fund team also said that it had ceased operations — a structure created to invest up to $1 billion in ‘ambitious projects with the aim of improving humanity’s long-term prospects’.

“We were shocked and deeply saddened to learn of the recent events at FTX. We extend our condolences to thousands of clients whose financial positions could have been jeopardized or destroyed,” the statement said.

The team noted that it does not yet have information about what went wrong.

“But to the extent that FTX leadership could have been involved in deceit or dishonesty, we condemn such conduct most strongly,” the statement said.

Earlier, on November 10, Binance backed out of the deal to acquire a competitor. The company said it could not resolve the issues facing FTX.

Industry participants hurried to distance themselves from Sam Bankman-Fried’s exchange and the related Alameda Research. One of FTX’s investors, venture firm Sequoia Capital, written off investments of $213.5 million.

According to media reports, U.S. regulators have begun examining FTX’s links with its U.S. subsidiary and Alameda Research. The Department of Justice has taken an interest in the platform’s activities.

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