Keynote Address By CFTC Commissioner Christy Goldsmith Romero At The Wharton School And The University Of Pennsylvania Carey Law School - Crypto’s Crisis Of Trust: Lessons Learned From FTX’s Collapse

It’s great to be back at school.  I served as an adjunct professor at Georgetown Law, teaching an advanced securities law and SEC class.  Over time, the focus of the class involved more cryptocurrency issues.  I then developed and taught a cryptocurrency regulation class at the University of Virginia Law School.

Let me give two standard disclosures as a federal official.  First, my views are my own as a Commissioner and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Commission or my fellow Commissioners.  Second, as a 20-year federal law enforcement official, I give the standard law enforcement disclaimer that charges are allegations and that defendants have the right to a fair trial.

The focus of this conference is FTX’s bankruptcy, and to put that in the larger context, today I am going to talk about trust.  I’ve been thinking about why FTX’s bankruptcy is so shocking and upsets people, even those who have not lost any money.  My theory is that this shock has to do with a violation of trust.  FTX and its founder Samuel Bankman Fried focused so much of their messaging on the idea that FTX and Mr. Bankman Fried could be “trusted” and that FTX was a “safe” and responsible haven in the crypto markets.

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