Kosta Ouzas uses the 2022 FTX collapse to argue that large financial institutions systematically gamble with customer deposits. He claims firms re-label proprietary trading as 'liquidity management' to regulators, concentrate gains to executives and shareholders, and leave depositors with losses when risky bets fail.
2022
In 2022, even the crypto world proved it wasn't immune. Sam Bankman Friedman's FTX took billions in customer deposits and funneled them into Alameda's research as leveraged high risk trades. When those bets unraveled, the collapse was swift. Billions vanished in days customers were locked out of their accounts and the market was completely shaken. Same playbook, different decade. Now these aren't rogue traders acting in isolation. They are symptoms of the system itself. Banks and large financial institutions have a built in incentive to use your money for their benefit. They call it proprietary trading when they win, liquidity management when they explain it to regulators and unforeseen market events when they lose. In plain language, it's gambling with your chips. You, the depositor, don't get to see the cards, you don't share in the winnings and you just get whatever crumb they decide to sprinkle into your account. While the bulk of the returns are funneled into executive bonuses, shareholder dividends and the next round of speculative bets.
