The already volatile world of cryptocurrency descended into a frenzy over the weekend when the crypto exchange FTX declared bankruptcy and many investors saw their holdings disappear overnight. The company's CEO Sam Bankman-Fried founded FTX in 2019, becoming a billionaire by the age 30. Fortune magazine called him the next Warren Buffet. But the fintech celebrity's meteoric rise came suddenly crashing down in early November when the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange Binance backed out of a potential buyout of FTX. Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao declared that the issues it had uncovered at FTX were “beyond our control or ability to help.”

Zhao wasn't the only prominent figure in the crypto world who had grown skeptical of Bankman-Fried. Elon Musk disclosed he had been equally unimpressed with Bankman-Fried: “I got a ton of people telling me [that] he’s got, you know, huge amounts of money that he wants to invest in the Twitter deal. And I talked to him for about half an hour. And I know my bullshit meter was redlining. It was like, this dude is bullshit – that was my impression.” Following Binance's withdrawal decision, it quickly became apparent that FTX did not have the funds available to investors trying to withdraw their holdings. Once valued at $32 billion dollars, FTX has imploded. Some hedge funds with around $100 million dollars invested in FTX are now nursing their losses.

Extreme volatility is a hallmark of the crypto market; in March 2022, the cryptocurrency Luna met a similar fate. However, what makes Bankman-Fried's FTX unusual was its linkages with the current authorities in Kiev, Ukraine and the Democratic Party, and the emerging role it appears to have played in the 2022 US midterm elections. The mainstream media omits from its celebrity coverage that Bankman-Fried and FTX have played a key role in bankrolling the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. In March 2022, FTX and the Ukrainian Government announced a partnership to allow for crypto donations to be quickly converted by the National Bank of Ukraine to use in its fight against Russia. Donors have since funneled an estimated $100 million to Ukraine through FTX.

Following the sudden collapse of FTX, Bankman-Fried’s relationship with certain politicians as well as his generous donations have come under increased scrutiny. In 2020, aged just 28 and with his company FTX just a year old, Bankman-Fried was fourth on the list of donors to the Democratic Party. Only George Soros outspent him during the 2021-22 cycle, when he was the second biggest donor to the Democratic Party. A reasonable person might wonder how such a new company with a young CEO came to so quickly rival an established multi-billionaire like George Soros.

While the story is still developing, it now appears that officials in Ukraine may have used taxpayer funds it received from the US government to invest in cryptocurrency at FTX, some of which Bankman-Fried later used to donate millions of dollars to Democratic Party candidates. Alex Bornyakov, Deputy Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine was quick to dispel the claim: “A fundraising crypto foundation @_AidForUkraine used @FTX_Official to convert crypto donations into fiat in March. Ukraine's gov never invested any funds into FTX. The whole narrative that Ukraine allegedly invested in FTX, who donated money to Democrats is nonsense, frankly.” But more investigation is clearly warranted, given the current Ukrainian Government's penchant for lying.

Bankman-Fried is reportedly residing under house arrest in the Bahamas at the request of the US, as the scandal grows and pressure mounts for an investigation. We will know sooner or later whether or not Ukraine directly invested in FTX. At the very least, Bankman-Fried's donation history reveals he is deeply invested in helping the Democratic Party maintain its grip on power as well as in perpetuating the Biden administration's reckless proxy war with Russia.