FTX Pitch Deck [Lessons in Creativity from a Controversial Startup]
- Ink Narrates | The Presentation Design Agency
- Nov 7, 2025
- 6 min read
We were building a pitch deck for Ryan when he said,
“I was looking at the FTX pitch deck, but is it even ethical to take inspiration from it considering what happened?”
Our Creative Director smiled and said,
“The controversy aside, it’s a brilliant example of design and narrative creativity.”
As a pitch deck agency, we see this a lot. People get nervous about learning from something that went wrong, even when the design itself has some really good ideas. The FTX pitch deck may come with baggage, but it’s still full of lessons worth studying.
So, in this blog, we’ll look at it from a creative and design point of view. What made it work, what you can take from it, and how to use those ideas to make your own pitch stronger.
In case you didn't know, we specialize in only one thing: making presentations. We can help you by designing your slides and writing your content too.
Before we break down their pitch deck, here’s a quick look at FTX’s story.
FTX, once valued at over $30 billion and hailed as one of the most successful crypto exchanges, collapsed in late 2022 after a massive liquidity crisis revealed deep financial mismanagement. The company filed for bankruptcy, and its founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, was convicted of fraud and sentenced to 25 years in prison for embezzling customer funds. Today, FTX no longer operates as an exchange; it exists only as a bankrupt entity focused on asset recovery and repayment to creditors. Despite plans to return billions to customers, it’s considered a failed company rather than a successful one.
Why We’re Still Analysing the FTX Pitch Deck
We’re examining this pitch deck not to glorify FTX’s outcome, but to understand how a compelling narrative and structure once convinced top investors to back what seemed like a revolutionary idea.
Here's the FTX Pitch Deck for Your Reference...
On a side note, if you’re working on a crypto pitch deck right now, we’ve put together another guide that might help. You can check it out here: How to Make a Crypto Pitch Deck
Now, let’s look at the FTX pitch deck through the lens of narrative and design.
The Plain Beginning
When you open the FTX pitch deck, the first slide feels almost empty. It has just the FTX logo on a plain background. No headline, no mission statement, no visual clue about what’s coming next.
We rarely see decks start this way. It’s unusual and, to be honest, not something we’d suggest. The first slide of a presentation is your handshake with the audience. It sets the tone and invites curiosity. When that moment passes with only a logo, the energy drops before the story even begins.
Still, this might not have been a careless choice. The slide includes a confidentiality statement, which hints that the team wanted to appear discreet and formal. Maybe they were aiming to project seriousness before diving into the details.
It’s understandable, but even then, the opening could have done more to intrigue the viewer. A good title slide helps people lean forward, not just flip to the next one.
A quick recovery: establishing context early
The second slide makes a strong comeback. It delivers what the first slide missed — context. It explains what FTX is, what it does, and where it stands in the market.
There’s something refreshing about how it builds credibility through short, confident lines:
Largest non-Chinese crypto exchange
Fourth largest exchange globally
Fastest growing by volume
These statements instantly signal traction and scale. Investors do not need to read a paragraph; the proof is right there.
On the right, a clean timeline maps the company’s growth from 2017 to 2021. It’s minimal but effective. You can scan it once and understand the journey. This is storytelling done with restraint.
By the time someone finishes reading this slide, they already know who FTX is, what they’ve achieved, and how fast they’re moving forward. That is exactly what a good early slide should achieve.
Design that speaks: the power of visual hierarchy
Next, the deck presents two slides filled with numbers, and this is where design takes the spotlight.
The numbers appear in bold, oversized fonts, while the short explanations underneath stay smaller and lighter.
This structure is a simple yet powerful example of visual hierarchy. It guides the audience naturally:
The big numbers draw attention first.
The smaller text adds context.
The empty space gives breathing room.
Many decks try to do too much. They overload a slide with charts, paragraphs, and endless bullet points. FTX avoided that trap. The design feels calm and confident, like it knows its value and doesn’t need to shout.
This is what minimal design should do, help the viewer focus on what matters most. Simplicity, when done intentionally, communicates power without noise.
When icons do the storytelling
The “Current Product Offering” slide is one of the cleanest in the entire deck. It’s a great example of how icons can communicate complex ideas quickly.
Here’s what it does well:
Uses thin, consistent line icons for clarity.
Lists offerings such as futures, spot, leveraged tokens, and OTC.
Balances text and visuals evenly across the layout.
This design feels modern. You understand what FTX offers in seconds, without reading long descriptions.
Then, on slide number eight, they include a phone mock-up that shows what the actual product looks like. It’s a small but smart decision. It brings the product to life. Instead of imagining what the platform might be, the audience gets to see it. That visual proof can make the story feel real and trustworthy.
Addressing the hard questions upfront
One of the most interesting creative decisions in the FTX pitch deck is the inclusion of a compliance framework slide. Most founders hide compliance details in the appendix or skip them entirely. FTX decided to place it front and center.
From a narrative standpoint, that’s a confident move. It says:
We know what worries you.
We’re not afraid to talk about it.
We take these concerns seriously.
In industries like crypto, where trust is fragile, addressing risk directly can be powerful. It shows awareness and transparency, at least in presentation form. Whether that confidence was genuine is a different story, but in terms of storytelling, it worked.
The lesson here is simple: sometimes it’s better to confront the difficult topics early instead of avoiding them. When you acknowledge challenges upfront, you guide the conversation instead of defending it later.
Ending with purpose, not logistics
The final slide takes a surprising turn. Instead of wrapping up with a “thank you” or just contact details, it closes on emotion and purpose.
It reads: “Our highest goal is to leave the world a better place than we inherited it.” It also mentions that 1% of all net revenues are donated to effective charities, along with personal contributions from team members.
Whether or not that message aged well, the idea behind it was strong. It ends the deck on belief, not business. It makes the audience feel something.
Many founders overlook this. They finish their deck with logistics, not vision. But purpose leaves an aftertaste. It helps people remember why your company exists, not just what it does. Even if investors forget the numbers, they remember the intent.
Breaking the formula to fit the audience
Here’s what makes the FTX pitch deck stand out: it doesn’t follow the traditional problem, solution, product, traction, ask format. It ignores the usual storytelling formula that most founders treat as gospel.
Instead, the narrative focuses on scale, credibility, and confidence. It doesn’t dwell on the “problem” of crypto adoption because that wasn’t what their investors cared about. They already believed in the industry.
The structure feels tailored to the audience:
It shows growth early.
It builds trust through proof.
It ends with purpose, not features.
This is narrative design in action. The team behind the deck understood who they were talking to and shaped the story accordingly. That’s what great communicators do. They don’t copy a framework; they adapt it.
Why Hire Us to Build your Pitch Deck?
If you're reading this, you're probably working on a pitch deck right now. You could do it all yourself. But the reality is - that’s not going to give you the high-impact presentation you need. It’s a lot of guesswork, a lot of trial and error. And at the end of the day, you’ll be left with a presentation that’s “good enough,” not one that gets results. On the other hand, we’ve spent years crafting thousands of presentations, mastering both storytelling and design. Let us handle this for you, so you can focus on what you do best.
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