FTX’s balance sheet was bad
The thing that this piece really got me thinking about is how many other crypto companies are the same ponzi scheme because they are counting made-up things as assets on their balance sheet.<p>In other words, suppose I create token SCAMMER, and I say its supply will be capped at 1 million tokens (or 10 million, or 100 million - that's the "nice" thing about crypto, I can kinda choose whatever number I want), and then I'm able to sell 10 of those tokens for $100 each. According to FTX math, I now have $99,999,000 of assets on my balance sheet, but of course if I actually tried to sell a lot of my "kept" tokens I would tank the SCAMMER price.<p>Even better, and I think what is probably more common in the crypto industry: suppose I get my buddy to create a SUX2BEU token. I tell my buddy I'll by 10 SUX2BEU tokens for $100 each if he buys 10 of my SCAMMER tokens for $100 each. Now suddenly we can both say we have huge assets on our balance sheets! Until, of course, someone decides to pull aside the curtain covering the wizard.<p>So many ponzi schemes on top of ponzi schemes...