- Elon Musk said his "bullshit meter was redlining" after meeting with Sam Bankman-Fried.
- His remarks came during a Twitter Space discussion with 60,000 attendees early Saturday morning.
Elon Musk is piling on after the downfall of $4, $4, claiming his "bullshit meter was redlining" in a previous meeting with the disgraced crypto leader to discuss a potential Twitter investment.
Musk's remarks came at around 2:30 a.m. ET Saturday during a Twitter Space conversation with 60,000 listeners, $4. The discussion began shortly after news broke on Friday evening that FTX was investigating "abnormal transactions" in an apparent hack, the cherry on top of a $4.
"To be honest, I'd never heard of him," the new Twitter CEO said, per Coinbase. "But then I got a ton of people telling me he's got, you know, huge amounts of money that he wants to invest in the Twitter deal. And I talked to him for about half an hour. And I know my bullshit meter was redlining. It was like, 'This dude is bullshit' — that was my impression."
On Friday, FTX announced it was $4 after failing to secure emergency funding. Bankman-Fried stepped down as CEO, lost 94% of his net worth, and admitted he "fucked up twice" in an apology on Twitter. He explained FTX's decline was a result of high customer withdrawals and his incorrect assessment of the amount of debt the company had accrued.
On Saturday, $4 that FTX carried just $900 million in sellable assets against $9 billion of liabilities one day before the company announced it was filing for bankruptcy.
While it's unclear when exactly the meeting between Bankman-Fried and Musk took place, it appears to have been in the early days of Musk's plans for a Twitter takeover, and well before FTX's public downfall. Still, Musk said he felt there was "something wrong" during the discussion.
"Man, everyone including major investment banks — everyone was talking about him like he's walking on water and has a zillion dollars. And that was not my impression … that dude is just — there's something wrong, and he does not have capital, and he will not come through. That was my prediction," Musk said.
Musk tweeted early Saturday morning "FTX meltdown/ransack being tracked in real-time on Twitter" and also posted a crude meme of Bankman-Fried.
—Elon Musk (@elonmusk) $4
The comments come as other crypto and tech leaders speak out about their own recent interactions with Bankman-Fried, including Brian Armstrong, the CEO of Coinbase, who told CNBC earlier this week that the $4 for the struggling company.
"I was basically reading the room, and it felt like a pretty bad situation that we wanted to stay away from," Armstrong said.