No, FTX Victims Are Not Getting All Their Money Back
The real story of the $8 billion restitution – and why I have no sympathy for victims
Ric Edelman: It's Wednesday, June 5th. On today's show, the final verdict in the FTX crypto scam. Investors lost $8 billion when FTX shut down almost overnight. It set off a crisis in the crypto community that lasted for two years. But now everybody who had an account with FTX is going to get their money back, according to FTX's bankruptcy lawyers.
All $8 billion of it will be returned. Bullshit. Don't believe it. What you've been reading in the press about this is dead wrong. The New York Times ran a headline saying, FTX customers poised to recover all funds lost in collapse. The Financial Times headline said, FTX account holders will get their money back after bankruptcy. Even the Wall Street Journal said, FTX says defrauded customers to be fully paid back. At least the journal realizes this is a claim by the lawyers, not the actual truth.
Here's what's really happening, and the two big lessons you need to take away from this horrible saga. Let's say that you opened an account at FTX, and you sent them money to buy one Bitcoin. At the time of FTX's collapse on November 6th, 2022, one Bitcoin was worth $20,000. So, the bankruptcy lawyers are going to give you your $20,000 back, the value of Bitcoin, the day FTX went broke. But wait a minute. You didn't have $20,000 at FTX. You had one Bitcoin. So the bankruptcy lawyers ought to be sending you back your one Bitcoin, and today that one Bitcoin is worth nearly $70,000.
You're not getting 100% of your money back like they're claiming. You're getting less than 30% of it. And by the way, it'll take months for you to get even that. Still, that's pretty good. The victims of Bernie Madoff are still waiting for their money back 16 years later. FTX victims are getting all of theirs in just three years.
So here are the lessons for you. First, I have no sympathy for any of FTX's American victims. FTX was a foreign crypto exchange, and the US government had made it very clear that American citizens were prohibited from opening an account with them. If you did, you were breaking the law. You didn't have to choose FTX. You could have gone to Coinbase, or Gemini, or Kraken, or a dozen of other places, including FTX US, an American company that FTX established to comply with US regulations. And by the way, when FTX collapsed, the customers of FTX US were perfectly fine. They were not caught up in the crisis, and that's because FTX US was operating independently and properly.
So, the lesson is, don't break the law. Work only with companies that operate as required by US laws and regulations. Lesson number two. If you're going to work with any advisor, or firm, or exchange, choose as big a firm as you can find.
If you're working with a guy who's running his own shop, and he's a one-man operation, and he turns out to be a crook, he probably has maybe a handful of clients and maybe a few million in assets. When he steals it, it's gone. I tell you stories all the time about these Ponzi schemers who spend the money they've stolen on fancy cars and jewelry and trips to Vegas and chartering jets and yachts.
When they're caught, the money's gone. They've spent it. There's nothing for the cops to collect. All they can do is put the guy in jail. But big companies? They're not only far less likely to steal. If they do, they have huge amounts of money that you can win in court. They've got lots of insurance, too. And if you do become a victim, you want to be a victim of a big fraud. Bernie Madoff and FTX stole billions of dollars, tens of billions of dollars. It's simply impossible for them to spend all that money. And that's why the bankruptcy lawyers in both cases were able to go find it, grab it and get it back to you. So I'm glad that FTX victims are finally getting money back. Don't kid yourself. They are still big victims and it's their own damn fault.
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Ric Edelman: Hey financial advisors, are you fluent in crypto, blockchain, bitcoin, Ethereum, stablecoins, tokenization – and most importantly, crypto taxation, estate planning, and asset allocation? Take the online course, become Certified in Blockchain and Digital Assets. Thousands of financial professionals in 37 countries have enrolled. Become fluent in crypto so you can help your clients and build your practice. Enroll today and get your CBDA designation.
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Ric Edelman: On tomorrow’s show, a new rule that will save investors $87 billion over the next 10 years.
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