Sam Bankman-Fried

Sam Bankman-Fried
Born	Samuel Benjamin Bankman-Fried 5 3, 1992
Birthplace	Stanford, California, U.S.
Nationality	American
Occupation	Entrepreneur
Known for	Founding FTX cryptocurrency exchange, founding Alameda Research
Education	Massachusetts Institute of Technology (BS)

Samuel Benjamin Bankman-Fried (born March 5, 1992), commonly known by his initials SBF, is an American entrepreneur and convicted felon who founded the cryptocurrency exchange FTX and the quantitative trading firm Alameda Research. Once celebrated as a wunderkind of the digital-asset industry and ranked among the wealthiest Americans on the Forbes 400, Bankman-Fried's empire collapsed in spectacular fashion in November 2022, when a liquidity crisis at FTX exposed billions of dollars in misappropriated customer funds and forced the company into bankruptcy. Within weeks, Bankman-Fried was arrested in the Bahamas and extradited to the United States, where he faced a sweeping federal indictment. In November 2023, a jury in the Southern District of New York found him guilty on all seven counts of fraud, conspiracy, and money laundering. On March 28, 2024, he was sentenced to 25 years in federal prison and ordered to forfeit $11 billion. The case has been described as one of the largest white-collar fraud prosecutions in American history.

Early Life

Samuel Benjamin Bankman-Fried was born on March 5, 1992, in Stanford, California. His parents, Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried, are both professors at Stanford Law School. His father, Joseph Bankman, specializes in tax law, while his mother, Barbara Fried, has focused on legal ethics and political philosophy. Bankman-Fried grew up on the Stanford University campus in an intellectually oriented household. His brother, Gabriel Bankman-Fried, later became involved in political advocacy and nonprofit work. His aunt, Linda P. Fried, is a prominent public-health academic.

Bankman-Fried has spoken publicly about being influenced from a young age by the philosophy of effective altruism, a movement that seeks to use evidence and reasoning to maximize the positive impact of charitable giving and career choices. This philosophical framework would later become central to his public persona, as he framed much of his business activity as a means of generating wealth that could be directed toward philanthropic causes. During his youth and adolescence, he reportedly developed strong interests in mathematics, logic, and strategy games.

Education

Bankman-Fried attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in physics. He also studied mathematics during his time at the institution. While at MIT, Bankman-Fried was introduced to the effective altruism community, which reinforced his stated desire to pursue a career focused on maximizing earnings for philanthropic purposes—a concept sometimes described as "earning to give." His time at MIT also provided him with a quantitative foundation that he would later apply to cryptocurrency trading and exchange operations.

Career

Jane Street Capital

After graduating from MIT, Bankman-Fried took a position as a trader at Jane Street Capital, a proprietary trading firm based in New York City known for its quantitative and algorithmic trading strategies. At Jane Street, he gained experience in exchange-traded fund (ETF) arbitrage and other quantitative trading techniques. This experience was formative in his understanding of market microstructure and would inform the design and operations of his later ventures in the cryptocurrency sector.

Alameda Research

In November 2017, Bankman-Fried left Jane Street Capital to found Alameda Research, a quantitative cryptocurrency trading firm. The firm was named after the city of Alameda, California, and initially operated from the San Francisco Bay Area. Alameda Research engaged in arbitrage strategies in the cryptocurrency markets, including what was described as exploiting price differences for Bitcoin between markets in different countries—a practice sometimes referred to as the "kimchi premium" when involving South Korean exchanges.

Alameda Research grew rapidly and became one of the largest cryptocurrency trading firms in the world. The firm reportedly traded billions of dollars' worth of digital assets per day at its peak. However, as would later be revealed during legal proceedings, the relationship between Alameda Research and the subsequently founded FTX exchange became a central element of the fraud charges against Bankman-Fried.

Founding of FTX

In 2019, Bankman-Fried co-founded FTX Trading Ltd., a cryptocurrency exchange that would go on to become one of the largest in the world. The exchange was initially headquartered in Hong Kong before relocating its operations to the Bahamas in September 2021. FTX offered a wide range of cryptocurrency derivatives products, including futures, options, and tokenized stocks, and attracted both retail and institutional traders. The platform grew to encompass more than 130 international affiliates and entities.

FTX's rapid rise was fueled in part by aggressive marketing campaigns, including naming rights to the home arena of the Miami Heat basketball team (renamed FTX Arena), sponsorship deals with prominent athletes, and high-profile Super Bowl advertisements. The exchange also attracted substantial venture capital investment. By 2021 and early 2022, FTX had raised several billion dollars from investors including Sequoia Capital, SoftBank, and other major institutional firms, which valued the company at $32 billion at its peak.

Bankman-Fried served as chief executive officer of FTX from its founding in 2019 until its collapse in November 2022. During this period, he became a prominent public figure in the cryptocurrency industry, testifying before the United States Congress and engaging with regulators on proposed frameworks for digital-asset oversight. He cultivated a deliberately casual public image—frequently appearing in T-shirts, shorts, and unkempt hair—which became central to media coverage of his persona. Bloomberg described him as "the ex-trader building a multi-billion crypto empire."

At the height of his wealth, Bankman-Fried's net worth was estimated at approximately $26 billion, and he was ranked as the 41st-richest American on the Forbes 400 list. Forbes included him in its "30 Under 30" finance list in 2021.

Collapse of FTX

The rapid unraveling of FTX began in early November 2022, when a report by the trade publication CoinDesk revealed that a substantial portion of Alameda Research's balance sheet consisted of FTT, a token created and issued by FTX. The disclosure raised concerns about the financial entanglement between the exchange and the trading firm, both of which were controlled by Bankman-Fried. On November 6, 2022, Changpeng Zhao, the CEO of rival exchange Binance, publicly announced that Binance would liquidate its holdings of FTT tokens, a statement that triggered a massive wave of customer withdrawals from FTX.

FTX was unable to meet the withdrawal requests, revealing that customer deposits had been improperly used. Binance initially announced a tentative deal to acquire FTX but withdrew from the agreement after conducting due diligence on the company's financial condition. On November 11, 2022, FTX, along with Alameda Research and more than 130 affiliated entities, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware. Bankman-Fried resigned as CEO the same day. John J. Ray III, the restructuring expert who had previously overseen the liquidation of Enron, was appointed as the new CEO and stated that in his decades of corporate restructuring experience, he had never seen "such a complete failure of corporate controls."

The collapse wiped out billions of dollars in customer assets and sent shockwaves through the cryptocurrency industry, contributing to a broader market downturn and prompting intensified calls from regulators and legislators for greater oversight of digital-asset businesses.

Arrest and Indictment

On December 12, 2022, Bankman-Fried was arrested at his residence in Nassau, the Bahamas, by the Royal Bahamas Police Force acting at the request of the United States government. The arrest came one day before he was scheduled to testify before the United States House Financial Services Committee. The United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York unsealed an indictment charging Bankman-Fried with eight criminal counts, including wire fraud, commodities fraud, securities fraud, money laundering, and conspiracy to commit campaign finance violations.

The indictment alleged that Bankman-Fried had orchestrated a scheme to defraud FTX customers by diverting their deposits to Alameda Research, which used the funds for speculative investments, venture capital deals, real estate purchases, and political donations. Prosecutors alleged that customer funds were used to make more than $100 million in political campaign contributions, primarily to Democratic candidates and political action committees, though some donations also went to Republican causes.

Several of Bankman-Fried's closest associates, including Caroline Ellison, the former CEO of Alameda Research, and Gary Wang, co-founder of FTX, pleaded guilty to fraud charges and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors. Nishad Singh, the former head of engineering at FTX, also pleaded guilty and cooperated with the prosecution.

Bankman-Fried was extradited to the United States and on January 3, 2023, appeared in a Manhattan federal court, where he pleaded not guilty to the charges. He was released on a $250 million bail package—one of the largest in U.S. history—and confined to his parents' home in Stanford, California, with electronic monitoring.

Trial, Conviction, and Sentencing

The trial of United States v. Bankman-Fried began on October 3, 2023, in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York before Judge Lewis Kaplan. The prosecution presented testimony from Bankman-Fried's former inner circle, including Caroline Ellison, Gary Wang, and Nishad Singh, all of whom testified that Bankman-Fried had directed the misuse of customer funds and had been aware that FTX lacked sufficient reserves to cover customer deposits.

On November 2, 2023, after approximately five hours of deliberation, the jury found Bankman-Fried guilty on all seven counts, including two counts of wire fraud, two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit commodities fraud, and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering.

On March 28, 2024, Judge Kaplan sentenced Bankman-Fried to 25 years in federal prison and ordered him to forfeit $11 billion. The sentence was lower than the potential maximum of 110 years but exceeded what the defense had requested. Bankman-Fried was remanded to the Federal Correctional Institution, Terminal Island in San Pedro, California, to serve his sentence.

Post-Conviction and Pardon Campaign

Following his conviction and incarceration, Bankman-Fried and his legal team filed an appeal of the conviction. In early 2026, reports emerged that Bankman-Fried had been conducting a public campaign for a presidential pardon from President Donald Trump, including through near-daily posts on the social media platform X. Despite his previous history as a major donor to the Democratic Party, Bankman-Fried's public statements appeared to align with Trump's political positions in an effort to secure clemency.

On February 24, 2026, the White House confirmed that President Trump would not grant a pardon or clemency to Bankman-Fried. This stood in contrast to the October 2025 pardon Trump had granted to Changpeng Zhao, the founder of rival exchange Binance, who had been convicted of violating anti-money-laundering laws.

Personal Life

Bankman-Fried is the son of Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried, both professors at Stanford Law School. His brother, Gabriel Bankman-Fried, was involved in political advocacy and nonprofit work, including the organization Guarding Against Pandemics. His aunt, Linda P. Fried, is a prominent figure in public health academia.

Bankman-Fried publicly identified as an adherent of effective altruism and pledged to donate the majority of his wealth to charitable causes. He was a signatory to the Giving Pledge. Through the FTX Foundation and other vehicles, Bankman-Fried made substantial donations to pandemic-preparedness initiatives, animal-welfare organizations, and other causes associated with the effective altruism movement. However, following the collapse of FTX, the extent to which these philanthropic commitments were funded with misappropriated customer assets became a central question in legal proceedings.

Bankman-Fried was in a romantic relationship with Caroline Ellison, the CEO of Alameda Research, during portions of the period in which the alleged fraud took place. Ellison later became a key prosecution witness against him.

During the period between his arrest and trial, Bankman-Fried resided at his parents' home in Stanford, California, under house arrest. His bail was revoked in August 2023 after Judge Kaplan found that he had improperly contacted witnesses, and he was remanded to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn to await trial.

Political Donations and Influence

Bankman-Fried was one of the largest individual political donors in the United States during the 2022 election cycle. He made substantial contributions to both Democratic and Republican candidates and political action committees, though the majority of his disclosed donations went to Democratic-aligned causes and candidates. He reportedly spent more than $40 million on political contributions in the 2022 midterm elections, making him the second-largest individual donor to the Democratic Party in that cycle.

The political donations became a significant element of the criminal case against Bankman-Fried. Prosecutors alleged that the donations were funded with misappropriated FTX customer funds and that Bankman-Fried had used straw donors to circumvent campaign finance contribution limits. One of the counts on which he was convicted related to conspiracy to commit campaign finance violations.

Recognition

Prior to the collapse of FTX, Bankman-Fried received significant recognition and media attention. Forbes named him to its "30 Under 30" list in finance in 2021. He was ranked as the 41st-wealthiest American on the Forbes 400 list at the peak of his net worth. He appeared on the covers of numerous business and technology publications and was a featured speaker at the World Economic Forum in Davos, financial industry conferences, and congressional hearings.

Bankman-Fried was also the subject of extensive journalistic scrutiny following the FTX collapse. Author Michael Lewis published Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon in October 2023, a book based on extensive access to Bankman-Fried in the months before and after the FTX collapse. Financier Anthony Scaramucci, who had business dealings with FTX, described Bankman-Fried as "the Bernie Madoff of crypto."

Multiple documentary films and media productions about the FTX collapse were announced or produced following Bankman-Fried's arrest and conviction.

Legacy

The collapse of FTX and the conviction of Bankman-Fried represent a defining episode in the history of the cryptocurrency industry. The case exposed the risks of concentrated power within largely unregulated financial platforms and the inadequacy of existing oversight mechanisms for digital-asset businesses. The fallout contributed to a significant decline in cryptocurrency market valuations in late 2022 and early 2023, and accelerated legislative and regulatory efforts in the United States and internationally.

The FTX bankruptcy process, overseen by CEO John J. Ray III, involved recovering and liquidating assets to compensate creditors and former customers. The proceedings revealed the extent of the commingling of FTX customer funds with Alameda Research operations and highlighted the absence of basic corporate governance structures at the exchange.

Bankman-Fried's case also prompted scrutiny of the effective altruism movement, as critics questioned whether the philosophy had been used to justify or rationalize ethically questionable financial behavior. The notion that earning vast sums through any available means could be justified by promised future charitable giving became a subject of debate within the movement and in broader public discourse.

The 25-year sentence imposed on Bankman-Fried was one of the longest for a white-collar fraud conviction in the United States and was seen by legal commentators as a signal of the seriousness with which federal courts would treat financial fraud in the cryptocurrency sector. The case is likely to serve as a reference point in future regulatory discussions and enforcement actions concerning digital-asset platforms.