Unrest in the Bahamas following the collapse of FTX: report

Residents say they are dealing with vacant apartments and the loss of job opportunities once provided by the collapse of the exchange.

Following the collapse of crypto exchange FTX, headquartered in the island country of the Bahamas, Bahamians are reportedly still trying to find a way to make sense of everything, while remaining optimistic about the future. future.

According to a report by The Wall Street Journal, the island nation – which had encouraged cryptocurrency firms to get comfortable with their “copacetic regulatory touch” – has been rocked by the FTX implosion.

The Bahamas was hit hard by Hurricane Dorian in 2019 and the pandemic soon after in 2020 and was already struggling to find ways to strengthen its economy, which relies heavily on tourism and offshore banking for the most part of its gross domestic product. It has emerged that Bahamian Prime Minister Philip Davis and his government believe crypto could play a vital role in the island's economic recovery.

Now the community suggests that the sudden implosion of FTX has left a trail of unemployment on the tiny 80 square mile island. When operating at full capacity, FTX provided jobs for locals, spending more than "$100,000 a week on catering", and also set up a private shuttle service to transport workers around the island. FTX has also hired a number of local Bahamians in areas including logistics, event 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 are said to have fled the island, leaving Bahamian security guards now guarding "nearly vacant buildings."

Related: SBF, FTX Executives Reportedly Spending Millions on Bahamas Properties

In the aftermath of FTX's fall, some in the crypto community said they felt no sympathy for the effects of the collapse on the small island nation.

Hacker News user Matkoniecz