He's always talked about criminal and unethical behavior in an understated and humorous way in his column, and as a private individual, should be exempt from the slimy methods of character assassination used on politicians.
Matt did call him out months ago on about how cynical his take on crypto was.
Saying he was describing a scam.
And that raised many red flags for others on SBF's ethos.
SBF prolly noticed his error and took efforts to cozy up to Matt afterwards. Hard to resist liking a billionaire who spends on you. It's a superpower that few are immune to in this capitalist world.
I think Levine was just saying, "this is a sensible answer to give as a trader operating an exchange where you want a healthy dose of cynical thinking like this instead of pure idealism".
Nobody listened to or remembered the interview until a couple of people pointed out how prophetic it was with hindsight.
Levine found SBF pleasant to talk to and he's amused by financial chicanery.
At the time he said it sounded like a Ponzi, and SBF agreed, but after FTX blew up, it turned out to be so much more.
They didn't have an accounting department. Reporting makes it sound like they didn't even know what real accounting is. SBF was quoted as rejecting the concept of books. As Levine wrote more recently, their alleged balance sheet was mostly "magic beans" and cobwebs. None of this was part of the interview.
So that is to say, I heard it, but I didn't realize the significance. And Levine is probably the best explainer and journalist in the financial space today.