• Sam Bankman-Fried reportedly received 2 million worth of raydium on January 2, 2023.
• According to reports, the whitepaper indicated that investor and team tokens should be locked for 1-3 years, but SBF sold 80k and sent 1 million raydium to FTX.
• In December, raydium was the victim of a liquidity pool exploit and $2 million in financing was used to restore it.
On January 2, 2023, reports emerged that former CEO and founder of crypto exchange FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried, acquired 2 million worth of raydium. This news was confirmed by Conor, director at Coinbase, with a Tweet stating that SBF’s wallet held 2 million raydium prior to announcing listing and perpetual futures on FTX. The whitepaper indicated that investor and team tokens should be locked for 1-3 years, but SBF sold 80k and sent 1 million raydium to FTX.
Raydium had a distribution of 555,000,000 million supply, 34% mining reserve, and 30% partnership and ecosystem. 20% was locked for 1-3 years, 6% was reserved for advisors (locked for 1-3 years), and 1% was allocated to liquidity pool. SBF was accused of withdrawing the remainder of raydium from the liquidity pools at the very top, netting a few million in ETH.
In December, raydium reported being a victim of a liquidity pool exploit. To restore it, $2 million in financing was used by its parent company, Raydium Foundation. SBF worked hard with regulators to protect consumers and make sure all of the occasions were legal.
Overall, the news of SBF’s acquisition of raydium sparked controversy due to the whitepaper’s indications that investor and team tokens should be locked for 1-3 years. This was clearly not followed and SBF’s actions may have violated regulations. Despite this, raydium was able to recover from the liquidity pool exploit and continues to be a successful project.