Sam Bankman-Fried and FTX Executives Visit White House As Regulatory Battle Continues

FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried and executives of the crypto exchange visited the White House earlier this year amid an ongoing debate on which US regulator should take charge of the digital assets industry.

Newly released visitor logs of the White House show that Bankman-Fried, plus FTX director of government relations and policy Eloria Katz and FTX head of policy and former Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) commissioner Mark Wetjen, met with policy advisor Charlotte Butash and counselor Steve Ricchetti on May 13th.

Bankman-Fried’s younger brother, Gabriel, director of Guarding Against Pandemics (GAP), which works to improve the government’s response to pandemics, was also at one of the meetings. 

It’s unclear what the discussions were about, but took place as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) grapples with the CFTC over which agency should oversee the crypto industry. 

In April, FTX sought the approval of the CFTC to modify its derivatives clearing organization (DCO) license so it can offer US customers a non-intermediated model of crypto derivatives trading.

The report of Bankman-Fried’s visit to the White House comes as the crypto billionaire establishes a name as a major political spender. As of this week, Protect Our Future, the super PAC (political action committee) that he funds, already spent over $24 million in Democratic House primaries nationwide.

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Featured Image: Shutterstock/Stephan Bezuidenhout