Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong is baffled that FTX’s founder and CEO, Sam Bankman Fried, is not yet in custody.

Coinbase’s founder and CEO, Brian Armstrong, believes that FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried should be in custody by now. Mr Armstrong shared his insights into the FTX saga last week at the a16z crypto Founder Summit. He said it was ‘baffling to me why he’s not in custody already.’

‘The DOJ or somebody should be able to make, just based on his public statements…I think there’s a very open and shut case for fraud,’ he added. ‘I’m not an expert on this, but the people I talk to seem to agree on that.’

The Media Has Refrained From Calling SBF a Criminal

In addition, Mr Armstrong questioned the coverage of the FTX events by the mainstream media, which had more or less taken a soft stance on Sam Bankman-Fried rather than reporting the situation as it is.

He explained, ‘I think we were all pretty shocked to see the scope of the fraud that happened at FTX. And let’s call it a fraud. We have to call it what it actually is. It’s been pretty bizarre that mainstream media hasn’t really come out and said, ‘This guy’s a criminal.’ Maybe they want to wait until he’s actually indicted or something like that, and in custody. But it seems very clear at this point that that’s the case.’

Losing $8 Billion is Not an Accounting Error

In a follow-up tweet over the weekend, Mr Armstrong poked holes in Sam Bankman-Fried’s narrative regarding the loss of $8 billion in customer funds. The Coinbase CEO stated that there was no way billions of dollars could be spent or lost without a CEO noticing.

He added that ‘even the most gullible person should not believe Sam’s claim that this was an accounting error.’ Mr Armstrong later concluded that the losses at FTX were simply ‘stolen customer money used in his hedge fund, plain and simple.’

（By John P. Njui）