In an interview with David Lin, Kevin O'Leary stated that the FTX collapse was just the first in a long line of “unregulated exchange collapses”:
“If you ask me if we should expect another collapse of a cryptocurrency company, then it is certainly worth. It will happen with a 100% chance. And new bankruptcies will happen again and again. All these exchanges, all unregulated exchanges, are now seeing massive capital outflows.. Investors get the point. They saw what happened to FTX and are not going to wait for an explanation.”
Next, the star of the Shark Tank show addressed representatives of cryptocurrency exchanges. He noted that if the site does not want to conduct audits, disclose collateral and generally be regulated, then one should not be surprised at the outflow of institutional capital.. O'Leary also commented on the refusal of Mazars and the auditor Armanino to work with cryptocurrency exchanges:
“To be honest, it’s very difficult to find an auditor who would even like to touch on this whole topic, because this is an unregulated environment, like in the Wild West. Someday this period will end, but, of course, we will see many more bankruptcies.”
Late last year, Kevin O'Leary revealed that he was paid $15 million by FTX, but the funds burned out due to the collapse of the company.