Sam Bankman-Fried

1992–present

Sam Bankman-Fried, who created the cryptocurrency trading exchange FTX in 2019, was one of the biggest names in the world of crypto. But in November 2022, after being unable to meet customer demand for withdrawals, FTX filed for bankruptcy, and Bankman-Fried resigned as its CEO. An investigation revealed the company had taken more than $8 billion from customers for uses that included illegal campaign donations, personal loans to executives, and buying luxury real estate. U.S. authorities charged Bankman-Fried with this theft as well as with defrauding lenders and investors. In November 2023, he was convicted on seven counts that included fraud, conspiracy, and money laundering. He is currently serving 25 years in prison.

FULL NAME: Samuel Bankman-Fried
BORN: March 5, 1992
BIRTHPLACE: Stanford, California
ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Pisces

Samuel Bankman-Fried, also known as SBF, was born in Stanford, California, on March 5, 1992 (His birthdate has also been reported as March 6, 1992). He is the first child of two Stanford University professors: Joseph Bankman, a legal scholar specializing in tax law, and Barbara Fried, who focuses on moral philosophy and the law. Sam grew up in a home on the Stanford campus with his younger brother, Gabriel. Family discussions introduced Sam to the concept of utilitarianism and acting to bring happiness to the most people.

After a young Sam cried to his mother, “I am so bored I feel like I’m going to die,” his parents signed him up for extracurricular math classes. SBF continued to excel at math while attending nearby Crystal Springs Uplands School, a private school.

Sam next attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he majored in physics. Playing board games late into the night at his fraternity was a favorite pastime of his.

MIT is also where he learned about effective altruism and “earning to give,” the belief that someone who made a lot of money then donated it would help the most people. This motivated Sam to pursue a career in finance. After graduating in 2014, he took a job at the trading firm Jane Street in New York and began giving away half his salary.

Bankman-Fried left Jane Street in 2017 and took a position at the Centre for Effective Altruism but didn’t stay there for long. At the time, the financial system was opening up to cryptocurrency, and more people were buying digital currencies than ever before. Bankman-Fried noticed Bitcoin was trading for different amounts on different exchanges and saw money-making potential.

That same year, Bankman-Fried launched Alameda Research to trade Bitcoin and other digital currencies. The firm made $20 million before the price differences he’d spotted evened out.

Sam Bankman-Fried worked in finance for about three years before he dove into the world of cryptocurrencies beginning in 2017.

In 2019, while Alameda operated in Hong Kong as a hedge fund focused on crypto-related deals, Bankman-Fried co-founded FTX, where people could trade and store cryptocurrencies. He also created FTX’s own cryptocurrency, FTT. Bankman-Fried initially based FTX in Hong Kong. In 2021, FTX moved to the crypto-friendly Bahamas, though Alameda maintained its base in Hong Kong.

Bankman-Fried touted FTX as a secure, user-friendly platform and was soon winning over investors. He also lobbied for U.S. government acceptance of crypto and testified before Congress about regulating digital currencies.

The crypto entrepreneur spent hundreds of millions of dollars promoting FTX to the public, too. Then-NFL quarterback Tom Brady and supermodel Gisele Bündchen were company ambassadors. Actor Larry David starred in a 2022 Super Bowl ad. Other deals included naming rights to a Miami arena and sponsoring a Formula 1 racing team.

In April 2022, Bankman-Fried hosted Crypto Bahamas, a four-day crypto summit with guests that included former U.S. President Bill Clinton and former British prime minister Tony Blair. SBF seemed poised to further dominate the industry when he had FTX bail out several crypto-related companies after an industry downturn began in May 2022.

At the beginning of 2022, FTX was worth $32 billion. Including the company’s U.S. operations brought its value up to $40 billion. Bankman-Fried’s personal net worth reached a high of $26 billion that March. He continued to say he was building wealth in order to donate it. Even after crypto’s 2022 decline, Bankman-Fried was worth $16 billion that November.

Despite his wealth, aspects of SBF’s life were decidedly casual. He almost always wore a T-shirt and shorts. He often slept on a bean bag in the office and liked to play League of Legends even when on calls with potential investors.

In the Bahamas, Bankman-Fried lived with 10 other FTX employees in a $30 million penthouse. A longtime vegan, he would occasionally cook vegan-friendly meals for the group. Another penthouse co-habitant was Caroline Ellison, who had an on-and-off relationship with Bankman-Fried between 2018 and mid-2022. He appointed her as co-CEO of Alameda in 2021. She became the firm’s sole CEO in 2022.

Bankman-Fried gave more than $5 million to Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential run and donated about $40 million to Democratic politicians. He’s said he gave similar sums to Republicans but did so via dark money because he feared liberal backlash. The crypto entrepreneur also gave to the fight against climate change and supported Guarding Against Pandemics, a nonprofit run by his younger brother.

On November 2, 2022, Coindesk, a website that covers cryptocurrencies, published leaked information that said of Alameda Research’s $14.6 billion in assets, more than $5 billion was in FTX’s FTT tokens. This raised eyebrows because Bankman-Fried had assured the public that FTX and Alameda were completely separate businesses, even though he held majority ownership of both.

In response, Changpeng Zhao of crypto trading firm Binance announced on November 6 that his company was planning to sell its $500 million of FTT tokens. This prompted many of FTX’s 1.2 million registered users to try to withdraw their money. But it turned out Alameda had borrowed billions of FTX customer funds with FTT tokens as collateral, and the declining value of that token meant Alameda couldn’t repay FTX. The lack of funds made FTX soon stop all withdrawals.

Bankman-Fried next sought outside help. On November 8, Binance agreed to a non-binding deal to take over FTX. But after reviewing FTX’s finances, they decided not to proceed.

Bankman-Fried found no one else willing to plug FTX’s $8 billion shortfall. On November 10, FTX’s assets were frozen in the Bahamas. The next day, FTX, FTX.US (the company’s U.S. platform), Alameda, and 130 related entities filed for bankruptcy. FTX’s implosion reduced Bankman-Fried’s net worth to zero.

U.S. federal law enforcement quickly began to investigate FTX, Alameda, and Bankman-Fried. SBF was arrested in the Bahamas on December 12, 2022. The next day, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York announced it had indicted him on eight counts that included fraud, money laundering, and campaign finance violations.

On December 21, 2022, Bankman-Fried was extradited to the United States. His bail was set at $250 million. With help from his parents, who put up their house as collateral, he was released to house arrest at his parents’ home on December 22.

Bankman-Fried continued to speak with reporters while out on bail and allegedly showed some of ex-girlfriend Ellison’s personal writing to The New York Times. As Ellison had agreed to testify against Bankman-Fried, prosecutors accused him of witness tampering and asked that his bail be revoked. On August 11, 2023, Bankman-Fried became an inmate at the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Brooklyn.

MDC’s history of poor conditions includes broken heating one winter and maggot-infested food. When he was first locked up, Bankman-Fried’s lawyers complained that he could only have bread, water, and peanut butter because he wasn’t getting vegan meals. They also asked the court to make sure he received medication needed to treat his ADHD and depression.

On August 14, 2023, prosecutors filed a superseding indictment against Bankman-Fried with seven counts: two of wire fraud, two of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit securities fraud, conspiracy to commit commodities fraud, and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Bankman-Fried’s trial on these charges began on October 3, 2023.

Three of Bankman-Fried’s former colleagues had accepted guilty pleas and agreed to be witnesses for the prosecution in SBF’s trial. FTX co-founder Gary Wang told the court Bankman-Fried had him change computer code so Alameda could withdraw practically unlimited amounts from FTX customers.

Ellison, Alameda Research’s one-time CEO, also testified and walked prosecutors through a spreadsheet that contained seven fake versions of Alameda’s balance sheets. She said Bankman-Fried told her to send a lender the version that didn’t include any customer money borrowed from FTX. Ellison also talked about a document she’d created in May 2022 that showed Alameda would be in trouble if crypto values went down. Bankman-Fried had added a comment: “Yup, and could also get worse.”

SBF took the stand in his own defense. He apologized for mistakes he’d made while CEO of FTX, such as poor risk management, but argued he hadn’t been aware of how customer money moved between FTX and Alameda. He also said Ellison, as CEO, bore responsibility for Alameda’s collapse. During cross-examination, a prosecutor challenged him with evidence of past statements that contradicted his testimony, such as his previously saying he was committed to safeguarding user funds.

On November 2, 2023, the jury found Bankman-Fried guilty on all seven counts. He faced a second trial, scheduled for March 2024, on additional charges of unlawful political contributions and bribery. However, at the end of December 2023, prosecutors said they wouldn’t proceed with these charges, noting a second trial wouldn’t change the amount of time Bankman-Fried would spend behind bars.

The court sentenced him to 25 years in prison on March 28, 2024. In the federal system, prisoners with good conduct serve only 85 percent of their sentences. Bankman-Fried will also get credit for the months he spent behind bars before sentencing and could participate in other programs to further reduce his length of incarceration. Fast Company spoke with an expert and estimated a release date of 2042 for Bankman-Fried. The disgraced crypto pioneer’s sentence also includes $11 billion in forfeiture, which he will have to repay before he can amass another fortune.

Bankman-Fried, whose register number is 37244-510, is currently incarcerated at Terminal Island, a low-security federal correctional institution in San Pedro, California. He has previously been housed at MDC in Brooklyn. He had asked to remain at the New York City detention center work on his appeal instead of moving to another facility.

Bankman-Fried’s legal team filed his appeal with the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in mid-September 2024. The brief asked for a new trial, arguing that he hadn’t been allowed to fully present his defense and criticizing the trial judge for lacking objectivity.

That same month, Bankman-Fried reportedly got a new roommate in his MDC dormitory: hip-hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs, who was facing federal charges in a sex crimes case.

In January 2025, Bloomberg News reported that Bankman-Fried’s parents were reaching out to people Donald Trump knows in the hopes he might offer their son a presidential pardon.

Trump is a Republican, and Bankman-Fried had previously supported Democrats, but he has developed a new attitude in prison. Speaking with the New York Sun from jail in February 2025, he accused former President Joe Biden of “political censorship” and criticized the Justice Department for prosecutorial overreach. He also praised Elon Musk’s chainsaw style of government cost-cutting. And in early March, Trump political ally Tucker Carlson published a video interview with SBF in which the former crypto magnate said his donations to Republicans became known around the time FTX collapsed and “probably played a role” in Democrats not helping him avoid prison.

The judge at Bankman-Fried’s trial, Lewis Kaplan, was also the judge at the civil trials for writer E. Jean Carroll’s defamation and sexual assault lawsuits against Trump. The president has complained about receiving unfair treatment from Kaplan, and Bankman-Fried told the Sun it’s a sentiment the two share.

Bankman-Fried was the subject of the book Going Infinite by Michael Lewis. A movie adaptation is in the works, with Lena Dunham, known for creating and co-starring in the series Girls, reportedly writing a script.

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Additionally, Netflix is working on a dramatized series about SBF and the fall of FTX. The Altruists is set to star actor Anthony Boyle as Bankman-Fried and actor Julia Garner as Caroline Ellison.

• The things that matter most are the things that have long-term impact on what the world will look like. There are trillions of people who have not yet been born.
• I had a duty to all of our stakeholders, to our customers, our creditors. I had a duty to our employees, to our investors and to the regulators of the world to do right by them and make sure the right things happened at the company. And clearly, I did not do a good job with that.
• There absolutely were management failures, huge management failures. I bear responsibility for that. There were oversight failures, transparency failures, reporting, like, so many things we should have had in place.
• I obviously wish that I had spent more time dwelling on the downsides and less time thinking about the upsides.
• You pretty quickly run out of really effective ways to make yourself happier by spending money.

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Sara Kettler

Freelance Writer

Sara Kettler is a Connecticut-based freelance writer who has written for Biography.com, History, and the A&E True Crime blog. She’s a member of the Writers Guild of America and also pens mystery novels. Outside of writing, she likes dogs, Broadway shows, and studying foreign languages.