Economy

The Cryptocurrency Crash Nobody Learned From

De Kryptofalutacrash dêr't Nimmen Fan Learde

June 13, 2026 · Frisian News

FTX's $8 billion collapse in 2022 exposed how regulators failed to police crypto markets. The same patterns are repeating in 2025 as retail investors return to crypto, suggesting nobody learned anything.

English

FTX collapsed in November 2022 and took $8 billion in customer funds with it. Sam Bankman-Fried promised his platform was safer than traditional finance. He was wrong, and many retail investors lost everything. Eighteen months later, the same patterns that destroyed FTX are playing out again in smaller crypto firms and larger exchanges.

The SEC, which oversees US financial markets, failed to stop FTX before it imploded. Regulators knew Bankman-Fried was borrowing billions from his own platform to fund his trading firm. They did nothing. The scheme was exposed in the press in November 2022, after the company was already waning. That a newspaper broke the story before the regulator caught it says everything about who was watching.

Here is what changed after FTX crashed: banks got stricter rules about what crypto firms could do with their accounts. Asset managers got tighter licensing requirements. And the crypto firms themselves, the ones that survived, became more profitable. Why? Because the new regulations raised the barrier to entry. Smaller competitors collapsed. Bigger ones thrived. Institutional capital bought crypto firms for fire-sale prices.

The same crash pattern is happening again. Retail investors poured money back into crypto in 2023 and 2024, betting on a "recovery". Bitcoin and Ethereum rallied. Then came the realization that custody, insurance, and actual security still did not exist. Concerns about accounting problems at various exchanges continued to surface. Some customers found they could not withdraw their funds. The broader pattern mirrored what played out in 2022.

Nobody wants to admit that crypto has a structural problem: it rewards first movers and insiders, and it punishes ordinary people who arrive late. The crashes are not bugs. They are the feature. And the institutions that profit from the chaos have no reason to fix it.

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Read this story in Frysk

Frysk

FTX stoarte yn novimber 2022 yn en naam $8 miljard oan klantejild mei. Sam Bankman-Fried bewearde dat syn platfoarm feiliger wie as tradisjonele finansiering. Hy hie it mis, en in soad partikuliere ynvestearders ferlearen alles. Achttjin moannen letter spylje deselde patroanen har opnij ôf yn lytsere kryptobedriuwen en gruttere hândelplatfoarmen.

De SEC, dy't de Amerikaanske finansjele merken oersjocht, mislearre deryn FTX tsjin te hâlden foardat it ynstoarte. Tafersjochhâlders wisten dat Bankman-Fried miljarden fan syn eigen platfoarm liende om syn hannelsfirma te finansierjen. Se dienen neat. It skema waard yn de parse iepenbiere yn novimber 2022, neidat it bedriuw al wankele. Dat in krante it skandaal earder ûntdekte as de tafersjochhâlder derfan hearde, seit alles oer wa't tasjoch.

Dit feroare nei de crash fan FTX: banken krigen strengere regels oer wat kryptobedriuwen mei harren rekkens dwaan koenen. Fermogensbehearders krigen striktere lisinsje-easken. En de kryptobedriuwen sels dy't oerlibbe hawwe, waarden rendabeler. Wêrom? Om't de nije regels de tagongsdreumpel ferheegden. Lytsere konkurrinten stoarten yn. Gruttere bloeide. Ynstitusjoneel kapitaal kocht kryptobedriuwen foar lege prizen.

Deselde crashpatroan docht har opnij foar. Partikuliere ynvestearders goaiden yn 2023 en 2024 opnij jild yn krypto, hopjend op in herstel. Bitcoin en Ethereum stigen. Doe kaam it ynsjoch dat bewaring, fersekering, en echte feiligens noch altyd net bestienen. Soargen oer boekhâldingsproblemen by ferskate hândelplatfoarmen blienen opkomme. Guon klanten ûntdekten dat se harren jild net opnimme koenen. It bredere patroan wjerspegele wat der yn 2022 barde.

Nimmen wol tajaan dat krypto in struktureel probleem hat: it beleant earste ynstekkers en ynsiiders, en it straft gewoane minsken dy't te let komme. De crashes binne gjin flaters. Se binne it systeem. En de ynstellingen dy't fan de gaos profitearje hawwe gjin reden om it op te lossen.

Published June 13, 2026 · Frisian News