The team behind the FTX Foundation’s Future Fund has quit. The fund had planned to distribute up to $1 billion this year.
The team behind FTX Future Fund, a project of the FTX Foundation, has quit.
We were shocked and immensely saddened to learn of the recent events at FTX. The team wrote in a post on Effective Altruism Forum, adding: “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.”
FTX Future Fund was launched in February of this year to improve humanity’s long-term prospects. It planned to distribute at least $100 million and up to $1 billion this year.
The foundation itself was established last year by FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried. But in a shocking turn of events over the last week, Bankman-Fried’s net worth has declined from around $16 billion to less than $1 billion.
FTX reportedly tapped customer assets to fund the risky bets of its affiliated trading firm, Alameda Research — setting up its implosion. Alameda is said to owe FTX about $10 billion. FTX paused customer withdrawals earlier this week and the crisis forced the exchange to scramble for emergency funding.
Alameda Research has since been shut down. But to the extent that the leadership of FTX may have engaged in deception or dishonesty.
