The Fallen Crypto Guru
Published in Die Presse
(Austria) on 18 March 2024
by Beate Lammer (link to original)
In August 2022, Sam Bankman-Fried's face was emblazoned on the cover of Fortune magazine, which celebrated the 32-year-old as the "next Warren Buffett."
The tech billionaire from California, known as "SBF," founded the FTX crypto exchange and gained attention with his charitable outreach and philanthropy. He was regarded as a good crypto entrepreneur, unlike his colleagues in the industry, who were accused of merely being out to make a quick buck. Today, the media sometimes refer to SBF as a "Bitcoin guru." But that's nonsense, as SBF didn't like Bitcoin. He told the Financial Times it had "no future as a payments network because of its inefficiency and high environmental costs." SBF showed minimal interest in the decentralized cryptocurrency. He preferred to create something of his own and believed he could do it all better than others.
In the end, he speculated away billions in customer funds. FTX went bust, and the whole crypto sector was dragged down with it. SBF has since been convicted of fraud and money laundering, and prosecutors are now seeking a 50-year prison sentence. Bitcoin is still around. Its price recently reached a record high.
The tech billionaire from California, known as "SBF," founded the FTX crypto exchange and gained attention with his charitable outreach and philanthropy. He was regarded as a good crypto entrepreneur, unlike his colleagues in the industry, who were accused of merely being out to make a quick buck. Today, the media sometimes refer to SBF as a "Bitcoin guru." But that's nonsense, as SBF didn't like Bitcoin. He told the Financial Times it had "no future as a payments network because of its inefficiency and high environmental costs." SBF showed minimal interest in the decentralized cryptocurrency. He preferred to create something of his own and believed he could do it all better than others.
In the end, he speculated away billions in customer funds. FTX went bust, and the whole crypto sector was dragged down with it. SBF has since been convicted of fraud and money laundering, and prosecutors are now seeking a 50-year prison sentence. Bitcoin is still around. Its price recently reached a record high.
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