The collapse of FTX, an international cryptocurrency exchange valued at $32 billion at the beginning of the year, is a wakeup call for financial regulators.
The discovery of an $8 billion shortfall has unraveled the more than 100 companies in the FTX empire, leaving a mess that one veteran of bankruptcies called the worst he had ever seen — which included the $74 billion loss that followed the Enron debacle.
The investigation will no doubt find hubris, incompetence, sloppiness and theft. No matter what the combination or the cause, the FTX implosion must trigger scrutiny of the entire cryptocurrency ecosystem and yield the regulations that are missing today.