FTX exchange founder's fortune

Sam Bankman-Fried, founder of cryptocurrency exchange FTX, which is going through bankruptcy proceedings, said he only had $100k left in his bank account, although his fortune was once valued at $26.5bn.

"The last time I checked, there was $100k in my bank account," he said in an interview with Axios published on Wednesday.The former crypto-exchange chief noted that "everything he had" was connected to the company in one way or another.

"Of course, to some extent, I would like someone other than me to handle the conflict of interest," he added.

Earlier in November, Bloomberg reported that the US Securities and Exchange Commission was investigating Bankman-Fried, the founder and CEO of FTX Trading. The regulator is investigating whether the businessman was involved in the actions that led to the company's liquidity crisis.

The agency informed that FTX, US platform FTX US and trading house Bankman-Fried Alameda Research were under investigation by the US regulator. The investigation began months ago with FTX US, but has been expanded recently.

In November, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, signed a non-binding agreement to buy FTX assets outside the US to help cover the competitor's liquidity crisis. The proposed deal between the exchanges followed a week of speculation about FTX's financial health, which led to users withdrawing $6 billion from the site in the 72 hours before it was announced. Binance later backed out of buying the service.