Michael Lewis, a well-known financial journalist and author, has been on the receiving end of significant backlash from the cryptocurrency community for his remarks on the now-liquidated FTX exchange.
Lewis suggested in a recent interview that FTX had a viable business model. The author implied that if it weren’t for doubts about the exchange’s operations, which led to a run on customer deposits, FTX would still be in the black.
This sparked substantial backlash within the crypto space, with many finding Lewis’s reasoning flawed. John Deaton, founder of CryptoLaw.us, publicly lambasted Lewis, referring to him as a “clown”.
Deaton accused Lewis of wrongfully blaming Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) for raising red flags about FTX’s situation. Deaton contended that it was wrong to attribute FTX’s issues to CZ’s whistleblowing rather than the exchange’s alleged fraudulent operations.
Furthermore, rumblings within the community suggested some U.S. Congress members were displeased with CZ’s actions, thinking it upset a profitable agreement with Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of FTX.
There were also suggestions that Lewis may have been generously compensated by FTX to champion the beleaguered exchange. An anonymous user quipped, “Tell me you got money from FTX without telling me you got money from FTX.”