FTX Token spikes 30% after Sam Bankman-Fried posts on X

FTX Token (FTT) surged 30% in a matter of minutes after Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced former CEO of FTX, posted on X for the first time in two years.

Bankman-Fried, who is serving a 25-year prison sentence for fraud, refernced Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency initiative, which requires government employees to justify their roles or risk termination.

“Firing people is one of the hardest things to do in the world. It sucks for everyone involved,” Bankman-Fried wrote. “More often, the problem is that the company just doesn’t have the right job for them.”

The post, despite having no connection to FTX or the FTT token, triggered an immediate reaction from traders. FTT jumped from $1.63 to over $2 within minutes, before retreating to $1.75 just 30 minutes later, according to CoinMarketCap.

FTT remains far below its peak

Even with the brief 30% surge, FTT remains down more than 97% from its all-time high of $85.02, which it reached on Sept. 10, 2021, before FTX collapsed in November 2022.

The token previously spiked when Bankman-Fried last posted on X in January 2023, discussing his drafted congressional testimony, when FTT was trading at around $2.50.

Bankman-Fried was convicted in November 2023 on seven counts of fraud related to the collapse of FTX and Alameda Research, which left billions in customer funds missing.

His parents, Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried, are reportedly seeking a presidential pardon for their son, according to Bloomberg News. The couple has been meeting with lawyers and figures close to the Trump administration to explore clemency options.

Trump recently pardoned Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht, raising speculation about further crypto-related clemency requests. However, Bankman-Fried’s chances of a pardon remain uncertain, given the scale of his conviction and the financial devastation caused by FTX’s collapse.