The implosion of FTX: lessons from an accounting perspective

THE financial troubles of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), Signature Bank and FTX have certain common elements. FTX was one of the largest crypto exchanges; SVB is active among tech startups; and Signature Bank has many customers who are major crypto players.

These collapses are excellent case studies of how companies can implode in a matter of weeks or even days. While the situation with SVB and Signature Bank is still unfolding, much is now known about the FTX fiasco, and some lessons can be drawn.

More than eighty institutional investors provided some US$2 billion in funding to FTX. Yet despite being such a large organisation, FTX surprisingly did not engage a Big 4 firm as its auditor.