Many of the cryptocurrency’s greatest advocates are giving up on the cause amid the FTX fallout

The collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried’s cryptocurrency exchange FTX was a nail in the coffin for cryptocurrency, according to several industry advocates at once.

The fall of FTX has triggered an exodus from cryptocurrencies, with investors pulling $20 billion from global cryptocurrency trading circles in November alone, or roughly 15% of the industry, according to the Wall Street Journal.

This trend comes thanks to small investors who have finally run out of confidence in cryptocurrencies.

“A lot of bad stuff has been exposed,” Nick Torico, a financial worker who had invested $10,000 in another now-bankrupt trading company, told WSJ. “The biggest lesson for me is to be patient and not try to make money quickly.”

EX-CRYPTO BOSS SAM BANKMAN-FRIED SLAMMED FOR COMMISSIONING “Pure and simple, good old fashioned fraud”

This illustration shows a smartphone screen displaying the logo of FTX, the cryptocurrency exchange platform, with a screen showing the FTX website in the background in Arlington, Virginia on February 10, 2022. (Olivier Dollery/AFP via Getty Images/Getty Images)

FTX wasn’t the only cryptocurrency trader to crash this year, though, with its stunning fall grabbing all the headlines. Voyager Digital and Celsius Network both filed for bankruptcy this summer, sparking concern that FTX’s downfall has only gotten worse.

Bankman Fried is currently in police custody in the Bahamas, where they are expected to agree to extradite him to the United States in the near future. He faces charges of fraud from federal prosecutors in New York, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and elsewhere.

Sam Fried Bank, founder of FTX, is accused of fraud and money laundering

The SEC alleges he may have misspent millions in campaign donations, the vast majority of which went to Democrats.

The cryptocurrency mogul ranked sixth on the overall list of individual half-term donors for 2022 in terms of federal contributions. According to the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit Open Secrets, Bankman-Fried’s contributions during the midterm election cycle totaled nearly $40 million.

(Editors’ note: Best quality available) Sam Bankman Fried, founder of FTX, left, and his mother Barbara Fried in Magistrates Court in Nassau, Bahamas, on Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2022. Judge, leaving a disgraced participant (Katanga Johnson/Bloomberg via Getty Images/Getty Images)

Majority of the house PAC Together, the majority Senate PAC has received $7 million from Bankman-Fried over the past two years, according to The Washington Post.

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Neither Democratic PAC has said whether it has plans to return any of the donations from Bankman-Fried, according to WaPo. Neither organization immediately responded to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.

Fox News’ Danielle Wallace contributed to this report.