After nearly two years of social media silence, Sam Bankman-Fried made a surprise return to X (formerly Twitter), weighing in on the recent wave of government layoffs in the U.S. His unexpected post immediately sent FTT, the native token of FTX, soaring by over 29%, jumping from $1.60 to $2.07 before settling around $1.77.
SBF’S First Public Post Since 2013
At 8:53 p.m. ET on Monday, Bankman-Fried published a 10-post thread, sharing his perspective on the government layoffs under the Trump administration.
“I have a lot of sympathy for gov’t employees: I, too, have not checked my email for the past few (hundred) days,” he joked, adding, “And I can confirm that being unemployed is a lot less relaxing than it looks.”
Massive Layoffs Under Trump’s Government
Recent reports suggest that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by Elon Musk, has overseen the termination of nearly 95,000 government employees, with expectations of further job cuts on the horizon.
SBF pointed out that layoffs often happen due to internal mismanagement rather than individual employee performance.
“We saw it internally, when a manager would get busy or distracted, and half of a department would lose its bearing at the same time,” he wrote. “It isn’t their fault if internal politics lead their department to lose its way. But there’s no point in keeping them around, doing nothing.”
Bankman Fried’s Legal Battle & Trump Pardons Rumors
Currently serving a 25-year prison sentence, Bankman-Fried was convicted of one of the largest financial frauds in U.S. history, after being found guilty of mismanaging billions in investor funds.
Despite his legal troubles, the former FTX CEO is actively appealing his conviction and seeking a presidential pardon from Donald Trump, who has recently granted clemency to Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht.
In a recent New York Sun interview, Bankman-Fried blamed his legal troubles on prosecutorial overreach under the Biden administration, noting that he was a major financial donor to Biden’s 2020 campaign.
However, decentralized prediction market platform Polymarket currently estimates only a 3% chance that Trump will grant Bankman-Fried a pardon within the first 100 days of his presidency.
What do you think? Could SBF actually get a pardon? Let me know in the comments.
