Sam Bankman-Fried interviewed Tucker Carlson from prison. The former FTX CEO still thinks declaring bankruptcy was a bad decision, and the exchange would have $93 billion in assets from his investments.
Bankman-Fried’s answers showed that many of his beliefs have remained the same since 2022, but it’s important to remember his biases.
Sam Bankman-Fried’s First Video Interview From Prison
Today, Bankman-Fried sat down with Tucker Carlson for a new video interview covering a wide range of topics.
This time, however, he didn’t mention the pardon. When Carlson asked Bankman-Fried why his extensive political contributions didn’t help him avoid prison in 2022, he responded by talking about his disillusionment with the Democratic Party.
This aligns with statements made in his previous interview.
“One factor that might be relevant is, in 2020, I was center-left, and I gave a lot to Biden’s campaign. I was optimistic. By 2022, I was giving to Republicans, privately, as much as Democrats. That started becoming known right around FTX’s collapse. That probably played a role,” he claimed.
Other than that change, however, many of his crypto-related beliefs appear unchanged since the FTX collapse in 2022. For example, Carlson asked Bankman-Fried whether crypto crimes were bigger 10 years ago, and he replied that they were smaller, citing the Silk Road.
When asked if he had any liquid assets, Bankman-Fried talked about roads not taken.
“The company I used to own, had nothing intervened, today would have about $15 billion of liabilities and about $93 billion of assets. There was enough money to pay everyone back in kind at the time. Plenty of interest left over, and tens of billions left for investors. But that’s not how it worked out. It’s been a colossal disaster,” Bankman-Fried stated.
In other words, he doesn’t seem to think that his actions at FTX were wrong or fraudulent. Similarly, the Silk Road achieved widespread notoriety, but its transactions amounted to less than $200 million.
Meanwhile, crypto scams in 2025 can steal that much in one day. In other words, it’s important to remember his biases, especially since he is removed from the scene.
Carlson grilled Bankman-Fried on a few other topics, like whether crypto scams were tarnishing the industry’s reputation. For the most part, they talked about other topics, such as celebrities incarcerated with him, using muffins as “prison money,” Bankman-Fried’s upcoming birthday, etc.
The European Central Bank (ECB) and European Commission are having a public dispute over MiCA and stablecoin regulation. The ECB believes that restrictions aren’t harsh enough, fearing US firms dominating the market.
The Commission disputed the ECB’s fears, alleging that it’s building up stablecoin-related fears to promote a controversial digital euro program. There are already signs of European irrelevance to Web3, and more restrictions likely wouldn’t help.
As one commentator, Mikko Ohtamaa, put it, it has good reasons to worry about the future:
“The EU had the first mover advantage with the regulation and they screwed it up. No EU stablecoin is internationally competitive because the inherited business unfriendliness that was baked into the MiCA by the lobbying efforts of banks and other legacy financial institutions,” he claimed via social media.
Most recently, Ethena Labs, too, pulled out of Europe after failing to get MiCA approval. These firms had no such problems in the US.
In an interesting twist, the ECB’s concern is not that MiCA is too harsh, thereby preventing innovation. As Politico claimed, it instead worries that existing regulations aren’t strong enough.
Instead, it acknowledged President Trump’s stated goal to use stablecoins to promote dollar dominance and fears that US assets could flood European markets. It wants to fight back head-on.
This is at the heart of the controversy between these EU institutions. The European Commission reacted with hostility to the ECB’s proposed MiCA changes.
That is, it seems that most EU institutions are satisfied with existing stablecoin regulations. Besides, if the ECB gets its proposed MiCA reforms, would that even matter?
The crypto markets reacted with shocking ambivalence to its recent rate cuts. Europe is in danger of falling behind in the global Web3 economy, and more restrictions aren’t likely to help.
The state of security across the crypto and blockchain space has changed significantly in the past few months. Traditional smart contracts exploited or brute force attacks on blockchain networks are being superseded by crypto scams like rug pulls and pump-and-dump schemes.
BeInCrypto spoke with a spokesperson from security firm CertiK to understand how blockchain and security threats are evolving and how projects and users can safeguard against future exploits.
Social Media Hacks on the Rise
Over the past few months, the crypto community has seen a rise in social media-related hacks. This increasingly common tendency has pivoted away from the orchestration of more sophisticated blockchain attacks that have traditionally plagued headlines.
Whereas smart contract exploits or blockchain hacks require more knowledge, hackers have found an easier avenue by targeting social media accounts instead.
X (formerly Twitter) has quickly become the social media platform of choice among Web3 hackers.
Social Media is Now a Prime Target for Web3 Hackers
After US President Donald Trump launched his meme coin only two days before assuming office, hackers began to take advantage of the hype to hack high-profile X accounts and convince followers to invest in scam meme coins.
Last month, anonymous hackers took over the X account of the former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad to promote MALAYSIA, a fake meme coin promoted as the country’s official cryptocurrency.
The post was removed within an hour, but the damage was done. Analysis shows that these hackers were probably related to the infamous Russian Evil Corp and that they stole $1.7 million in this rug pull.
The MALAYSIA token scam happened only two weeks after hackers exploited former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s social media account. In that instance, scammers promoted the BRAZIL token, which rose over 10,000% in minutes, netting the scammers over $1.3 million.
These scams have also affected technological companies.
Attacks on Tech Companies
In December, AI research and development company Anthropic also saw its X account hacked. A fraudulent post claimed that a fake token called CLAUDE would incentivize AI and crypto projects and included a wallet address for investors.
Attackers managed to collect around $100,000 from speculative investors.
These situations also highlight a broader issue of weak account security on social media platforms. As a result, even prominent individuals are susceptible to security breaches that directly affect the crypto community.
TRUMP Meme Coin Launch Was a Catalyst For Crypto Scams
“Now is the time to talk about the fact that large-scale political coins cross a further line: they are not just sources of fun, whose harm is at most contained to mistakes made by voluntary participants, they are vehicles for unlimited political bribery, including from foreign nation states,” Buterin claimed.
Buterin highlighted the tokens’ role in enabling scams and political corruption in crypto and blamed a regulatory loophole former SEC Chair Gary Gensler created for allowing bad actors to exploit governance tokens.
However, these crypto scams extend beyond political themes.
Growth of Social Engineering Exploits
A week after Buterin cautioned against political meme coins, a Coinbase user lost $11.5 million after falling victim to a social engineering scam on Base.
Crypto sleuth ZackXBT uncovered the exploit, pointing out that this incident is part of a growing trend, with multiple Coinbase users suffering similar losses. He also estimates that crypto scams of this nature have drained at least $150 million from Coinbase customers.
“Coinbase has a serious fraud problem. I just uncovered many more recent thefts from Coinbase users. The $150 million stolen from Coinbase users in a year is just from thefts I independently confirmed. So it’s more than likely multiples of this number,” ZachXBT stated.
In social engineering scams, attackers use phishing emails, spoofed calls, and other deceptive tactics to trick victims into revealing private keys or login credentials. Once they gain access, they drain wallets, move funds, and take control of accounts.
For CertiK, these situations stipulate the need for stronger security measures.
Addressing these security challenges is crucial as new crypto projects increase exponentially.
Prioritizing Proactive Security in a Rapidly Growing Industry
The Web3 sector is experiencing consistent growth, marked by a surge in new crypto project launches. This innovative momentum is expected to continue, but it’s also fueling security concerns.
Notably, the increasing rate of scams and hacks in the first three months of 2025 makes it clear that security efforts are struggling to keep up with innovation.
A study by Precedence Research estimates the Web 3.0 market will expand from USD 4.62 billion in 2025 to approximately USD 99.75 billion by 2034, with a projected compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 41.18% during that period.
Predicted market size of Web3 in the next ten years. Source: Precedence Research.
Yet, CertiK believes that project developers are pushing security considerations toward the end of the priority list.
As the Web3 ecosystem evolves, a proactive and adaptive security approach is critical. Prioritizing both blockchain integrity and social media vigilance will be essential for safeguarding the growing Web3 ecosystem.
The battle against these exploits requires a future where security is not an afterthought but a foundational pillar of every Web3 project and user interaction.
Solana’s meme coin creation platform Pump.fun has continued its transfer of SOL tokens. The platform recently transferred 196,370 SOL, worth approximately $25.3 million, to the Kraken exchange.
Additionally, Pump.fun’s daily fee revenue dropped from around 12,000 SOL, or $2 million per day, in February 2025 to less than 1,000 SOL, or $100,000 per day, in March, a 95% drop.
Pump.fun Transfers SOL to Kraken
According to EmberCN, the recent 196,370 SOL transfer consisted of two main transactions of 78,000 SOL and 118,370 SOL.
“The SOL that PumpFun transferred to Kraken today is only a small portion of the fee income from the past three weeks. In addition, there are 120,000 SOL that PumpFun redeemed as pledged SOL,” EmberCN reported.
Recent SOL transfers from the Pump.fun Fee wallet. Source: EmberCN
As of January 2025, Lookonchain reported that Pump.fun had transferred 1.56 million SOL to Kraken. With SOL prices ranging from $180–$200 in Q1, this amount was valued between $281 million and $313 million. With the latest transfer, the total SOL sent to exchanges now reaches approximately 1.76 million SOL, worth around $219 million at current prices.
Declining Revenue at Pump.fun
Moreover, EmberCN further highlighted that in February 2025, Pump.fun’s daily fee revenue averaged 12,000 SOL per day or approximately $2 million per day. However, as of March 2025, revenue has dropped below 1,000 SOL per day, marking a 95% decline.
Previously, Dune Analytics data showed that Pump.fun generated 72,506 SOL in revenue on January 1, 2025, a 30% increase from its previous peak of 55,000 SOL in November 2024.
Pump.fun’s cumulative fee revenue is estimated to be nearly $600 million at the time of writing. A portion of this revenue appears to have been moved or sold.
The drastic fee decline is likely due to fading interest in meme coins. The meme coin craze on Solana peaked in late 2024 and early 2025. However, recent token performance on Pump.fun has failed to meet expectations. Only a small percentage of Pump.fun tokens reach wider markets like Raydium.
Previously, Pump.fun also contributed to the market boom by creating over 600,000 new tokens in January 2025. However, competitive platforms like Four.meme have captured community interest, despite suffering from hacks. Over the past 24 hours, six tokens launched on Four.meme have exceeded a $1 million market cap, while only one token on Pump.fun reached that threshold.
Moreover, according to EmberCN, PvP trading enthusiasm in SOL has plummeted, reducing transaction volume on Pump.fun.
The 95% revenue drop from February to March 2025 signals a potential downturn. Pump.fun’s heavy reliance on meme coins makes it vulnerable to market shifts. Meme coin market capitalization has dropped substantially, signaling a possible end to the “supercycle” of explosive growth. The ongoing SOL transfers to Kraken could indicate sales preparations, potentially putting downward pressure on SOL prices.
At the time of BeInCrypto’s report, SOL price is trading at $124.05.
