Ethereum Co-founder Vitalik Buterin points to Sam Bankman Fried’s collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX as the antithesis of what blockchain networks represent, which he believes are decentralized, “cannot be evil” and are communities.
The crypto billionaire took to the main stage at Ethereum’s DebConnect Argentina conference on Monday, wearing Willy Wonka-inspired sunglasses and a wrinkled Moo Deng shirt to match the former CEO of FTX.
After some short pleasantries, Buterin met Bankman Fried’s face and previous quote From a jailed crypto tycoon: “I’m in crypto because I want to make the biggest impact on the world forever.”
Vitalik Buterin on stage at Devconnect Argentina 2025. Photo: Decrypt
“FTX…I think this is a perfect example of what can be done if you literally take the principles of Ethereum and turn them 180 degrees,” Buterin explained. “Ethereum in a nutshell is not what it is,” he said, gesturing to an image of Bankman Freed on the screen.
The Ethereum co-founder dug deeper into the comparison. The most obvious is that FTX was a centralized exchange, whereas Ethereum is built with decentralization as its core principle. Buterin explained that this centralized nature was at the heart of FTX’s failure, as it required the public to blindly trust the exchange without insight into its inner workings.
When it comes to Ethereum, development happens through gradual upgrades that are suggested, vetted, and developed by the community, all of which are publicly available.
Decentralized exchanges have been rapidly growing in popularity this year, and this is part of the reason why. superfluidityFor example, it was founded by founder Jeff Yan after FTX collapsed. I believed The industry had clear reasons to no longer trust centralized exchanges. Distrust of centralized exchanges continues to persist. data leakhack, and mismanagementencouraging users to look elsewhere to trade cryptocurrencies.
Buterin believes that FTX has chosen the motto “Don’t be evil”, an ethos that FTX has adopted. google In the early days. Again, this approach requires companies to be trusted not to do anything wrong.
“The point of decentralized technology, the point of blockchain, is that you don’t have to trust the blockchain,” Buterin said, arguing that Ethereum simply “cannot be evil” as a result of decentralization.
FTX was a major centralized exchange that secretly provided billions of dollars in customer funds to Bankman Freed’s trading company Alameda Research to compensate for huge trading losses.
As a result, the founders of FTX and Alameda Research sentenced to 25 years in prison He was charged with seven counts of fraud, money laundering and conspiracy. Although billions of dollars worth of investments were repaid to creditors, the collapse remains a stain on the crypto industry, leading to cross-platform contagion and heavy losses.
After all, the big difference with Buterin is that FTX is a company, whereas Ethereum is a “community.”
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“The difference between a company and a community is that a company is hub and spoke structure“At the core is an organization that does something and raises money. A community is a huge group of people who do something for each other,” he explained.
For Buterin, Ethereum is a decentralized community of crypto enthusiasts that slowly Trustworthy neutrality technology. FTX, on the other hand, is a centralized corporation controlled by a few powerful people who asked the public to trust it would not do evil, but in the end it did.
Ethereum has been on an upward trend since the beginning of this year, breaking a four-year price record in August and peaking just under $5,000. But since then, ETH has had a tough few months, falling 39% and falling below the $3,000 milestone on Monday for the first time since July.
