US Democratic PAC returns FTX founder’s $3 million as Sam Bankman-Fried signs extradition papers

The FTX collapse will go down as one of the biggest downfalls in the history of crypto. The now-bankrupt exchange’s founder, Sam Bankman-Fried,  is bringing the saga to a close with his most recent decision as acquaintances protect themselves by severing ties with the former.

FTX and Sam Bankman-Fried gain $3 million

The former executive of FTX was arrested last week at the behest of the authorities in the United States, and his return to the country has been a matter of discussion since. While extradition was approved by both the Bahamas and the US, Bankman-Fried has been noted to be a “flight risk”, making extradition difficult. However, the accused has been far more eager to return to the States.

During a hearing on Monday, FTX’s founder declined to waive extradition, leaving the court and his lawyers confused. Since then, Bankman-Fried has been held in jail, awaiting a hearing on Wednesday to determine his extradition.

Upon Bankman-Fried’s return to the United States, the ex-CEO will be facing charges from both the Securities and Exchange Commission as well as the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

However, those unwilling to be associated with FTX and its founder in any way are severing connections even before his return to the States.

The Democratic Senate Majority PAC announced that it would be returning all contributions made by the former FTX head and his associate and ex-head of engineering, Nishad Singh. Receiving $2 million from Bankman-Fried and another million dollars from Singh, the super PAC stated that it would be returning them at the earliest.

A PAC spokesperson told CNBC on December 20,

“Following the serious allegations against FTX, Senate Majority PAC previously set aside the contribution amounts from Sam Bankman-Fried and Nishad Singh with the intention of returning the funds once we receive proper direction from federal law enforcement officials based on their legal proceedings.”

The crypto market remains tumultuous 

The total crypto market capitalization noted an increase of $20 billion in the last 24 hours after losing over $75 billion in the last week. The increase in market capitalization noted the value of all cryptocurrencies increasing from $753 billion to $773 billion.

The crypto market still needs to gain over $53 billion just to recover its losses from this week. This rise would be crucial in initiating a recovery from the lost value from November 6 crash caused by FTX’s collapse.