Controversial Interview With SBF Is Here. Here's What To Know

GM Readers!📪 This is BitDegree Insider, and here's your web3 espresso shot☕️

⭐️Today's selection:

• 🎙SBF Speaks Publicly
• 🌕Telegram Goes To The Moon
• 🧩Quiz Thursdays
• 👌Selected Meme of The Day
• 📰Bite-Sized News

SBF SPEAKS AT PRESTIGIOUS EVENT

So the day has come. Sam Bankman-Fried took the floor at the DealBook Summit, organized The New York Times.

To have SBF as a guest speaker at such a high-profile event was a very controversial decision.

He was listed as one of the main speakers among such figures as Mark Zuckerberg or President Volodymyr Zelensky.

The public raised their eyebrow - why is someone, who just single-handedly wiped out billions and billions of everyone else's money… presented together with respected individuals?

Nevertheless, the event happened.

And here are the key moments from the interview which went on for about an hour and a half.

When asked about how he feels about actually causing people financial losses and taking away their trust in the industry, Sam presented himself as someone with good intentions:

"I didn't ever try to commit fraud on anyone," he began, 'I made a lot of mistakes, never tried to commit fraud.'

The journalist was ready to ask him the real questions. So he just went through them like a recipe.

So he asked SBF about Alameda, about his political donations, about his connections with Regulators in DC, about his future, and everything in between these questions.

Here are some of the juiciest bits and pieces from the interview:

'I wasn't running Alameda, I didn't know exactly what was going on,' - on his influence over Alameda and its connection to FTX.

'I was nervous because of the conflict of interest about being too involved,' - on why he avoided knowing too much about the Alameda situation.

"The classic advice phrase 'don't say anything, you know, recede into a hole, and… that's now who I am… <...> I think a have a duty to talk to people," - on what are his lawyers advising him.

'So, you know… uhh… basically… profits,' - on where did the money for political donations come from.

'I spent hundreds of hours… probably thousands of hours in DC, trying to get to the point where I could even have meetings,' - on struggles to reach and talk to talk to important regulators.

And when asked about how much money SBF, the former Forbes Billionaire, has currently left, here's what he said:

Even though the questions asked were straight to the point, and addressed all the key points of the topic, many remained not impressed.

A common sentiment is that the interviewer didn't go after SBF hard enough. He let him go with half-assed answers, and didn't try to pin-point when SBF was avoiding telling how things truly are.

Others are still angry at the fact that this whole 'interview' charade is just a PR strategy for redeeming SBF's public image. As someone worthy of talking to.

We can summarize this even with one word: 'polarizing'.

TL;DR: SBF gave a public talk/interview yesterday. He was asked about every burning FTX-related issue, and he delivered his answers. But many remain unconvinced.

TODAY'S ISSUE IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY FIO

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TELEGRAM GOES TO THE MOON

Pavel Durov, the boss of Telegram, wrote a lengthy post about the messenger's future. He plans to introduce a wallet, DeFi services and a crypto-exchange.

He cited the FTX bankruptcy as an example of what the power of crypto exchanges and other intermediaries leads to.

Investors lost money because of "the hands of a few who have begun to abuse their power".

Then he went on to promote his blockchain, TON, which will soon be fully integrated into the Telegram app.

"With technologies like TON reaching their potential, the blockchain industry should finally be able to deliver on its core mission - giving the power back to the people" proclaimed the CEO.

Durov didn't miss the opportunity to recall 'Fragment' - the decentralised auction platform. Since its launch, it has generated $50 million in sales.

Fragment sells tokenized usernames for use in Telegram, like NFTs. But… In word format. Cool-sounding user handles.

In addition, Ton Foundation announced a crypto "rescue fund" and allocated $126 million to do so.

It will go to companies that want to switch to Ton blockchain from other networks.

And, of course… Remember us!

Subscribe to our Telegram Channel.

What to expect?

Updates about the latest IDO/IFO/IEO news. Insights about NFTs, Airdrops, Testnets and stuff like that.

Just recently we talked about enormous opportunities when participating in Vertex Public Testnet, we learned what is Crew3 and how you can get a share of a $50,000 bounty program from Trust Wallet.

Interested? Jump aboard the BitDegree Insider Telegram train!

TL;DR: Telegram CEO unveiled that the messenger app has grand ambitions about entering the web3 world.

Quiz THURSDAY

It's Thursday! That means we've got some work for you. Check out what we've prepared, think of the right answer and be sure to tune in tomorrow to see if you were right!

SELECTED MEME OF THE DAY

BITE-SIZED NEWS

• Gemini Receives Regulatory Approval to Provide Its Services in Italy and Greece. Claiming new territories.
• INX Digital Joins the Bidding Process for Voyager Assets. Voyager's voyage is still going on.
• After FTX's Collapse, Members of European Parliament Urge EU to Pass MiCA. It stands for 'Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation'
• Crypto Exchange Binance Purchases Japanese Sakura Exchange BitCoin. Konnichiwa!