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Gabriel Trompiz first learned about the FTX student ambassador program through a message on LinkedIn.
He has been identified as someone who can represent and promote a crypto exchange at his university. Trompiz quickly signed up through the link he was sent to and became an FTX ambassador shortly after.
No contracts were signed and Trompiz said he was not paid. But he was given a mission: to promote the company to college students to help build the company’s user base in Europe.
FTX was runs an on-campus ambassador program in Africa, with the same goal of advertising exchange with the students. The call for students to join and become school ambassadors was shared on FTX Africa’s Twitter account.
Lucky Atueyi who attended the University of Nigeriais one of them and regularly organizes events and seminars about FTX.
“They expect about 500 to 1,000 or 1,500 students to attend. So you teach them about cryptocurrencies, blockchain technology, and most importantly, the benefits of using FTX,” he said. with CNBC’s Make It.
Unlike Trompiz, Atueyi says he gets paid – as long as he completes certain tasks and achieves goals. Role is not limited to providing education on exchange. Instead, he says that referring people and getting them to sign up and make sure they start trading and depositing is an important part of it.
Documents seen by CNBC confirm Trompiz’ and Atueyi’s involvement with FTX as student ambassadors. Neither FTX nor the law firms representing the struggling crypto exchange, Sullivan & Cromwell and Landis, Rath & Cobb, did not respond to CNBC’s request for comment on this article.
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In Europe and the United States, FTX is mainly known for its cryptocurrency trading. But in Africa, the platform is also used to exchange local currency for U.S. dollar and money storage for individuals and businesses — effectively use FTX like a real bank.
As an ambassador, you preach using it
Imran Yahya
Former FTX Student Ambassador
FTX files for bankruptcy and halted customer withdrawals in November 2022. Many people tried to withdraw their investments after Rival exchange Binance has sold all of FTX’s native FTT tokens and concerns about the company’s liquidity spread rapidly.
ONE Bankruptcy lawsuit is going on in the USbut it remains unclear how much assets can be recovered and when customers will be able to regain access to any of their investments.
Elsewhere in Nigeria, Imran Yahya is the FTX campus ambassador at Bayero . University. “As an ambassador, you preach using it,” he tells CNBC’S Make It.
Along with promoting the exchange on campus, he promoted it to his broader local community and created content for FTX.
“Nothing suspicious on my part,” he said. He gave people information about FTX with no obligation to spend money, and they trusted him and his advice, he explained. Many of these people lost money in the crash of FTX.
Similar to other FTX investors and employees, student ambassadors were blindsided by the bankruptcy of FTX. Atueyi first noticed how bad rumors about the company’s financial situation really were on Twitter, but many more senior employees reassured him that FTX was “bigger than this” and the rumors that was spread by competitors.
“I just see them as normal business strategies,” he said.
Trompiz and Yahya were similarly surprised, and all three of them lost some money. Part of that is because as students they only had limited disposable income to invest, but Trompiz has also stored most of his crypto investments in wallets instead of FTX.
Pick up the shards and look forward
Despite the losses, the three student ambassadors are still not ready to give up crypto and digital assets. Although they have learned some lessons from the experience, their views have not changed significantly.
“The only thing that the fall of FTX has taught me is that no company is too big to fail,” Yahya said, adding that the only thing he will do differently in the future is to be more careful.
I trust them a bit. I was like, I’m part of those who say FTX is too big to fail
Lucky Atueyi
Former FTX Student Ambassador
Atueyi has a similar view: “I’ll have to play it safe,” he said.
To him, this is about trust and understanding that no matter how decentralized exchanges may be, they still control your money.
“I almost trust them. I was like, I’m part of those who say FTX is too big to fail,” he said. “I don’t think it’s wise to leave your money there,” Atueyi explains, “and they have full control over your money. So it’s like any bank.”
Trompiz shares his views on decentralization. “The more I get into crypto and the more I learn about it, the more I see that the real point of it is decentralization,” he said.
He believes exchanges like FTX are useful for the industry as a whole and for increasing adoption of digital assets — but using them “is like contradicting yourself.” Therefore, in the future, he plans to rely less on them and refocus his investments on other areas of digital assets such as DeFi.
So while the demise of FTX costs them money, causes guilt, and affects personal relationships, they’ll accept it. As Atueyi said: “I personally just love cryptocurrencies… Things like this happen.”
