Sam Bankman-Fried, the tarnished golden boy of the cryptoverse, was taken into custody in the Bahamas on Monday, December 12, per the New York Times. SBF faces federal charges likely including wire fraud, wire fraud conspiracy, securities fraud, securities fraud conspiracy and money laundering – the full scope of the charges will become clear when prosecutors in New York’s Southern District unseal the indictment Tuesday.

Bankman-Fried founded the crypto exchange FTX, built it into a supposed multi-billion dollar company, and smashed it into the ground through alleged self-dealing and negligent mismanagement.

The collapse of FTX produced a contagion effect in the cryptoverse leading to a number of smaller exchanges and lenders, most notably BlockFi, to collapse. The ripples shook not only the books of the affected companies but investor faith in crypto as well.

In the wake of the FTX debacle crypto has faced mounting calls for regulation and individual investors have clamored for justice and accountability. Now that SBF is under arrest the question is: Will holding him accountable restore faith in crypto?

In my view the short answer is no. Crypto needs centralized exchanges to make buying, selling, staking, and cryptoing in general accessible to the broad public. Without the ease of use provided by exchanges like FTX crypto is destined to remain a niche interest and a speculative security. Mass adoption demands user-friendly transactions, price stability, and a sense of security (safety from hacks, rug pulls, fraud, and user error). Exchanges are necessary to satisfy those criteria and SBF has undermined faith in exchanges for the average crypto-curios investor (true believers likely never had any but that is another post).

The SBF arrest is positive in that it begins the process of accountability. It does not however, make affected investors whole, restore faith in the safety of exchanges, or clean up crypto’s wild west image. Those, it seems, are matters for legislators and bankruptcy courts.