The 1confirmation founder drew a parallel with the FTX collapse, arguing that wealth, attention and narrative chasing can push investors to back obvious hazards.
1confirmation founder Nick Tomaino said the debate around AI investment fund Situational Awareness points to a long-running problem in investing: many so-called elite or "smart money" participants lack basic risk judgment. Writing on X, he said he does not know all the details of the episode and did not want to comment on the mechanics of any blowup, but argued that a deeper issue is that investors driven by wealth and attention often stop weighing facts, risk and their judgment of other people. He cited the FTX collapse as an example, saying many people could sense something was off after brief contact with the founder, yet large amounts of smart money kept investing and endorsing it because they were chasing returns and market narratives. Tomaino said the same pattern appeared around Situational Awareness, with similar investors chasing a big story, providing capital and helping promote it before the fund ran into trouble after high-risk bets and a market reversal.