FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried Had A Trip To The White House In May

Sam Bankman-Fried, the co-founder and CEO of crypto exchange FTX, visited the White House on May 12 and May 13 along with the exchange's director of government relations and policy Eloria Katz, and head of policy Mark Wetjen, according to visitor logs.

As per the visitor log documents, the three individuals who work at FTX did not meet with President Joe Biden but with Biden administration policy adviser Charlotte Butash and counselor Steve Ricchetti.

The details of the meeting remain unclear but the visit coincided with one of Bankman-Fried's appearances before Congress. On May 12, Bankman-Fried, popularly known as SBF in the crypto community, along with other individuals, testified before Congress in favor of a March proposal to allow non-intermediated derivatives trading on the platform.

The proposal by FTX U.S., the U.S. arm of the crypto exchange, requested to modify the exchange's derivatives clearing organization (DCO) license, allowing a new model of crypto margin trading to American retail customers.

Under this model, customers' positions will be reviewed every 30 seconds and SBF described it in front of Congress as "a 24/7 risk engine that is unlike the traditional system where there needs to be separate risk models for overnight, weekends and holidays where hours can go by with no ability to mitigate risk to the system."

On May 25, SBF attended a round table hosted by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) which included many industry members.

Interestingly, Bankman-Fried's brother Gabriel also visited the White House along with the team. Although the brother of the crypto billionaire is not associated with FTX, the two have worked on several initiatives like the pandemic readiness PAC.

"I want to stop the next pandemic. That is really my one and only goal here... I think over time, people will realize that," SBF said in May when asked about his intentions for launching the PAC.

It remains unclear if the FTX executives talked about crypto policy or other such details during their visit to the White House.