Locals say they are having to contend with vacant apartments and the
loss of job opportunities once provided by the collapsed exchange.
Following the collapse of crypto exchange FTX, which was
headquartered in the island country of Bahamas, Bahamians are reportedly
still trying to find a way to make sense of everything, while remaining
optimistic about the future.
According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, the island country — which had encouraged cryptocurrency companies to feel at home with their “copacetic regulatory touch” — has been rocked by the implosion of FTX.
The
Bahamas was hard hit by Hurricane Dorian in 2019 and the pandemic
shortly afterward in 2020 and was already struggling to find ways to
strengthen its economy, which relies heavily on tourism and offshore
banking for a bulk of its gross domestic product. It appeared that the
prime minister of the Bahamas, Philip Davis, and his government believed
crypto could play a critical role in the island’s economic recovery.
Now,
the community is suggesting that FTX’s sudden implosion has left a
trail of unemployment on the tiny 80-square-mile island. When
functioning at full capacity, FTX provided employment for locals,
reportedly spending over “$100,000 a week on catering,” and also set up a
private shuttle service to transport workers around the island. FTX
also hired a number of local Bahamians in areas such as logistics,
events planning and regulatory compliance, according to the WSJ.
With
the collapse of FTX, many high-spending foreigners who worked for the
company and once boosted the local economy have reportedly fled the
island, leaving Bahamian security guards to now guard “nearly vacant
buildings."
Related: SBF, FTX execs reportedly spend millions on properties in the Bahamas
In
the aftermath of the fall of FTX, some crypto community members have
said they feel no sympathy for the effects of the collapse on the tiny
island country.
Hacker News user Matkoniecz commented, “Given that Bahamas help rich people and companies to evade taxes, my sympathy to negative consequences of that are limited.”
Meanwhile, Exendroinient00 shared,
“Nothing wrong with inviting every scammer to do scamming on your
islands,” likely in reference to the island’s laws that seem to
incentivize offshore banking activities.
On Oct. 18, Cointelegraph reported that the Bahamas‘ securities regulator ordered the transfer of FTX’s digital assets to a wallet owned by the commission “for safekeeping.”
According to a statement from the Royal Bahamas Police Force sent
to Reuters on Nov 13, an investigation into possible criminal
misconduct over the insolvency of FTX is underway by financial
investigators and Bahamian securities regulators.
source link : https://cointelegraph.com/news/trouble-in-the-bahamas-following-ftx-collapse-report
