Crypto lessons from Sultana Daku

The last few weeks have been particularly volatile for crypto — even by its own standards. In a matter of days, the space has seen one of the biggest players, FTX, plunge into bankruptcy from a valuation of $32 billion. Not only that, more drama is coming to the limelight as the layers of the onion are peeled. Forget for a minute that the crypto exchange held just $900 million in liquid assets against $9bn of liabilities or that its accounting firm was in the metaverse. All this while the founder was going about pretending to be a philanthropist using clients’ money and even making political donations to earn clout. That barely scratches the surface of a far deeper rot in the company, which will make for a great (and pretty damning) book or movie. But it also deepens the cracks in the broader crypto space, which has shown little intention to introspect.