“FTX!” his backup singers and audience shout back. “I’m out of money!”
After years of sustaining an economy that relied heavily on tourism and banking, cryptocurrency exchange FTX has been launched by the Bahamas government to push it to become a global destination for all cryptocurrencies. It was considered to be the finest jewel. Instead, FTX is bankrupt and Bahamians are trying to figure out what their country should do next and if the country’s cryptocurrency experiment has failed. Regulators are trying to find the money FTX customers have lost.
Meanwhile, charities like Rolle’s and dozens of currently out-of-work contractors hope another company can come along and bring new opportunities to the island nation without the complications and embarrassment of an alleged billion-dollar scam. I hope
Pentecostal preacher Rolle, known as “The Singing Bishop,” is a prominent figure in the Bahamas. For decades, he donated food to the poor by cooking in his neighborhood kitchen at the Ministry of International Rescue and Prayer in Over the Hill, one of his poorest neighborhoods in the capital, Nassau, and provided school lunches. have provided. Roll and his staff feed about 2,500 people a week.
Rolle had been invited by Kirby Samuel, principal of Mt. Carmel Preparatory Academy, to sing as part of the school’s Christmas celebrations. Most of his work consisted of six Afro-Caribbean gospel songs, of which his one stood out. His social his media hit about his recent FTX debacle.
Rolle’s Ministry received $50,000 from FTX in early 2022. This is one of several donations FTX has made to the people of the Bahamas when it relocates to his Caribbean island nation in 2021. According to him, it will restore food storage trailers and donate additional food. Rolle said it costs him more than $10,000 a week to run the food donation program.
Asked about FTX’s failure, Rolle explained that it was a sad distraction from the many problems facing the country. The Bahamas, like other Caribbean islands, had a reputation as a destination for illicit offshore finance. There was a belief that cryptocurrencies would help diversify the island’s economy, give Bahamians more economic opportunities, and provide a more prosperous future for the country as a whole.
The country enacted the Digital Assets and Registered Exchanges Act in 2020, making the Bahamas one of the first countries to put together a regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies and other digital assets. Prime Minister Philip Davis joined Bankman-Fried at the groundbreaking ceremony for FTX’s new $60 million headquarters in Nassau in April.
“Their arrival was kind of the culmination of the work that the Bahamians have done to move in this direction,” said Stephane Delvaux, president and CEO of the Caribbean Blockchain Association.
Several other cryptocurrency companies and startups are headquartered in the Bahamas, including some in an incubator known as Crypto Isles, not far from downtown Nassau.
Deleveau said he became interested in cryptocurrencies in 2014 and has been trying to focus the organization’s efforts on non-trading aspects of cryptocurrencies, such as blockchain technology, financial inclusion and technological use. He is skeptical about cryptocurrency trading.
“It’s frustrating. Now when people think of cryptocurrencies, they think of FTX,” Deleveau said. “It would make my job harder.”
In a way, the Bahamians said FTX is ubiquitous and removed from the community. Its advertisements were everywhere, especially in the tourist arrival hall at Nassau Airport. But at the same time, FTX did most of its business out of a secure, luxurious complex known as Albany, where residents like Tiger Woods and Justin Timberlake were regularly seen. It is the most populous island in , and is located opposite New Providence Island, where Nassau is located.
“You don’t walk into Albany casually,” says Delvaux.
A bartender at the Margaritaville resort, where FTX launched a $55,000 unpaid tab, said a group of 10 to 15 mostly white FTX employees dining at the restaurant had their faces buried in their laptops the entire time. Explained: FTX employed Bahamians and contracted Bahamian businesses, but mostly in logistics jobs such as construction, janitorial services, and food catering.
Once FTX took root in elite circles in the Bahamas, it all came to light. FTX collapsed in spectacular fashion in his early November, going from insolvency to bankruptcy in less than a week. One caterer said his biggest contract, he had to let go of most of his employees after FTX went bankrupt.
Bankman-Fried, 30, was arrested in the Bahamas last month and extradited to the United States to face criminal charges in what federal attorney Damian Williams called “one of the greatest frauds in American history.” The floppy-haired crypto entrepreneur has been released on bail and is set to go on trial in October.
Meanwhile, US and Bahamas law enforcement and regulators, as well as lawyers and FTX’s new management team, are trying to determine how much investor and customer money is “lost.” Estimates of how much money was lost in the FTX collapse vary widely, as some assets are still being recovered, but one estimate puts the loss at around $8 billion to $10 billion.
“Like the rest of the world, I’ve been glued to TV since the (FTX) demise,” Mount Carmel principal Samuel said in an interview.
However, other Bahamians said the FTX demise had distracted them from the ongoing problems facing the Caribbean nation.
The Bahamian economy has been severely tested by the coronavirus pandemic. The country has effectively banned foreign tourists for nearly two years and started docking cruise ships at popular docks about eight months ago. . The British Colonial-style hotel, best known as a filming location for the James Bond movie “Never Say Never Again,” was boarded up and shut down in February. A room used to be $400 a night.
Despite miles of pristine beaches, beautiful resorts, and one of the richest economies in the Caribbean, the Bahamas remains an unequally torn country. I told them I couldn’t even get a $6,000 loan from About one in five Bahamians does not have a bank account, according to the country’s central bank.
Late last year, the Bahamian government had to impose price controls on dozens of staple foods in a desperate attempt to fight inflation.
FTX officials seemed to recognize food and hunger as issues to be addressed in order to build goodwill with their new neighbors. In addition to her $50,000 donation to Rolle’s ministry, FTX donated her $250,000 to Hands for Hunger and channeled her $1.1 million into a new nonprofit known as the Agricultural Development Board. . The committee’s founder, Philip Smith, did not respond to several requests for comment on the donation.
When FTX filed for bankruptcy, there was speculation in the Bahamian media that Rolle would have to return the $50,000 donation.
“We bought flour and rice and collected as much money as we could,” said Rolle. “Too many people are hungry.”
“This is a difficult question for bishops, but one thing I think everyone in this country agrees on is that whatever they gave the bishop, he didn’t use it for himself,” Mount said. Samuel of Carmel said,
“I wish there was a better company than FTX,” said Rolle. has no father, we can hardly afford to feed them, and I pray to God that someone will come and donate more.”
