What blockchain analysis can and can't do to find FTX's missing funds: Blockchain.com CEO
Peter Smith said the hardest thing to trace was the funds that enter the banking system. Blockchain.com's founder and CEO, Peter Smith, believes on-chain analytics will play a significant role in locating the missing FTX funds, though it will have its limitations. On Dec. 20, Fox Business host Liz Claman said that blockchain’s selling point was that it makes crypto transactions transparent and traceable, asking Smith the question of what it could trace in the case of FTX’s missing customer funds. Smith said that blockchain sleuths have already done a fair bit of work in chasing the money trail, adding that it could in fact be the banking system where the trail could turn cold: “The most challenging thing for [blockchain analytics] firms working on this today is when money moves off chain and into the banking system because they’re no longer able to track it.” He cited an example of when Sam Bankman-Fried or associates purchased real estate as that would have originated from a ban...