In FTX’s collapse, the RBI stands vindicated

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Editor's note: “It feels like we were in a nightclub and the lights just turned on.” Airbnb chief executive Brian Chesky’s tweet on 13 November is perhaps the most apt summary of the current state of the crypto industry, assuming that he was not referring to Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter or the tanking of global tech stocks (including Airbnb) in recent months.  Nothing could have prepared any crypto enthusiast, investor, critic or even an outside observer like me for the mind-bending descent of the Bahamas-based cryptocurrency exchange FTX Trading Ltd and its associate businesses into bankruptcy over last week.  The crypto empire helmed by the “King of Crypto”, Sam Bankman-Fried, popularly referred to as SBF, was worth $32 billion on paper till Friday and was one of the largest cryptocurrency businesses on the planet. On Monday, it was worth nothing. The firm, backed by marquee investors such as Binance, Sequoia, Tiger Global, Third Point Ventures, among others, is now under investigation for potential counts of fraud by authorities in both the US and the Bahamas. It all started with an expose …