FTX CEO Spends 5 Hours per day to Deal with Regulatory Issues

FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried revealed he spends five hours a day to deal with regulatory and licensing of cryptocurrencies issues, according to a CNBC report Monday.

Speaking at a recorded interview with CNBC on-air Monday. The 29-year-old billionaire said the company is “applying for licenses in several jurisdictions right now”, spending time to deal with cryptocurrency regulations, indicating “the landscape is changing” and need to keep adapting amid the increased oversight from the global regulators.

“I think it's probably a good solid five hours a day or so that I'm spending on everything from regulation to licensing and everything in between.”

Bankman-Fired said his Hong Kong-based crypto derivatives exchange firm tries to comply with various jurisdictions' varying regulations. He implies the current legal challenge is due to the absence of clarity of laws.

Bankman-Fried also indicated that many regulators are finding out what the contexts for crypto derivatives should be like without combining this matter together. He expects to have more development to “arise in the coming three to five years by working together with regulators.”

Last month, FTX announced that the company had raised $900 million in series B financing, enabling the company’s market value to reach an estimated $18 billion. Bankman-Fried explained the majority of capital would be used for acquisition and expanding development.

FTX is now the world’s fifth-biggest Bitcoin futures exchange, according to data from Skew.com. FTX Exchange has raised a total of $16M in funding over the last four rounds. The previous financing occurred on March 2, 2020. Leading investors include Binance and One Block Capital.