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- Jim Chanos called Michael Lewis' defense of FTX "nonsense" on Sunday.
- Lewis had told CBS's "60 Minutes" that the crypto exchange failed because of a bank run.
- "This was literally Enron's defense," the top short-seller said on X.
Jim Chanos has slammed Michael Lewis' defense of FTX, flatly dismissing the idea that the failed crypto exchange would have been fine without a wave of withdrawals.
Lewis appeared on CBS's "60 Minutes" Sunday to discuss his upcoming book about Sam Bankman-Fried, "Going Infinite".
"This isn't a Ponzi scheme… If no one had ever cast aspersions on the business, if there hadn't been a run on customer deposits, they'd still be sitting there making tons of money," the "Big Short" author said.
"This was literally Enron's defense. 'If it wasn't for those meddling short-sellers and journalists causing a run-on-the-bank, we would've been fine'," Chanos posted on X late Sunday, referring to the energy firm that collapsed in late 2001 after an accounting scandal.
"This is nonsense, as both FTX and Enron were both massively insolvent, not illiquid," the short seller added.
In November 2022, FTX customers pulled over $6 billion in just 72 hours after CoinDesk reported that sister trading firm Alameda Research held much of its portfolio in the exchange's native token, FTT. Bankman-Fried later called those mass withdrawals a "run on the bank".
The ex-billionaire's trial for wire fraud, securities fraud, and money laundering is set to begin in New York City Tuesday, after Bankman-Fried pleaded not guilty to all of those charges.
Elsewhere on his "60 Minutes" slot, Lewis said that even Bankman-Fried's closest friends thought he was "not built to manage people" – and that the now-disgraced FTX founder had considered paying Donald Trump $5 billion to stop him running for office.