In a Tuesday interview with Fox Business, he said he has already written off his FTX losses and sees almost no chance of getting his money back.
He noted that some analysts predicted that investors could get some funds back with a 10-20% haircut, and he expects it will take many years to get anything back, similar to the collapse of other crypto platforms.
But as other investors who lost access to funds at FTX have told Insider, Tsai’s faith in crypto remains, even as one of the industry’s biggest players is on trial for fraud.
“In the long term, I’m pretty bullish on Bitcoin or cryptocurrencies, because cryptocurrencies and the blockchain itself are good technology,” he said.
Tsai noted that while bitcoin investors have lost money in 2022, those who invested in it several years earlier are still winning by a wide margin.
This year bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, is down roughly 65%. But since 2015, the token is up almost 5,000%.
“This FTX event actually pushed prices down a lot,” Tsai said. “But I think this is a good opportunity for us, for cryptocurrency investors to buy the dip.”
As for the disgraced FTX founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, his story becomes increasingly strange and complex.
For example, earlier this year he and co-founder Gary Wang borrowed $546 million from Bankman-Fried’s Alameda Research to finance the purchase of Robinhood shares. Alameda later took out a loan and pledged those same shares as collateral.
Bankman-Fried remains under house arrest at her parents’ home in California.
