Jailed FTX Founder SBF’s Tweets Drive Native Token Price, FTT Surges 30%

Now-defunct FTX crypto exchange head Sam Bankman-Fried, aka SBF, has returned to his social media platform X, after 767 days. His comeback briefly spiked native FTT token by 30% in the early hours of Tuesday.

SBF, who is currently serving a 25-year sentence, has posted a thread on X, expressing his thoughts on the recent US federal layoffs.

“I have a lot of sympathy for gov’t employees. I, too, have not checked my email for the past few (hundred) days,” he wrote.

1) I have a lot of sympathy for gov’t employees: I, too, have not checked my email for the past few (hundred) days

And I can confirm that being unemployed is a lot less relaxing than it looks

— SBF (@SBF_FTX) February 25, 2025

SBF continued to discuss the difficulties of firing employees, adding it’s “one of the hardest things to do.” He wrote that layoffs often happen even when it’s “not the employee’s fault.”

Elon Musk, who is now a special government employee, announced that federal employees would have to tell the Office of Personnel and Management what they did last week, or consider resignation.

Per Reuters, 95,000 jobs have been eliminated recently, and a second wave of jobs cuts are expected.

FTT Briefly Spikes After SBF’s Public Appearance

FTT, the native token of the FTX platform, has shown a brief surge, following Bankman-Fried’s posts. The token spiked from roughly $1.60 to $2.07 on Tuesday, before falling back to $1.78.

FTT is currently trading at $1.73 at press time, according to CoinGecko data.

Tweets From Prison Fuel Community Speculation

His threads have left the crypto community wondering how SBF managed to come online from prison. Given strict security measures, his appearance on X after two years raised speculation as to whether someone is posting from his account on his behalf.

A source familiar with the recent SBF posts told CoinDesk that he does not have direct access to social media. However, he can send messages via the Corrlinks system, to communicate with people outside of prison.

Recently, the then billionaire’s parents have been seeking clemency for their son from Donald Trump, following Ross Ulbricht’s ‘Unconditional’ Pardon.

Bankman-Fried expressed frustration with the Democratic Party, praising Republican crypto policies in a recent interview. He claimed that his trial was unfair, influenced by political motives.

SBF has been serving his sentence in jail since March 2024, along with a $11 billion fine, for using billions of dollars in funds belonging to FTX customers to make highly risky bets through a sister trading firm.