Samuel Bankman-Fried

 Samuel Bankman-Fried^[1] (born March 6, 1992^[2]), also known by his initials SBF,^[3] is an American entrepreneur, investor and founder and former CEO of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX,^[4][5][6][7] FTX.US^[8] and quantitative cryptocurrency trading firm Alameda Research. FTX experienced a crisis in late 2022, which led to a collapse in FTX's native cryptocurrency, FTT. Amid the crisis, Bankman-Fried announced he would wind down operations at Alameda Research and resigned as CEO of FTX, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.^[9][10]

Bankman-Fried's net worth peaked at $26 billion.^[11] In October 2022, he had an estimated net worth of $10.5 billion.^[12] However, on November 8, 2022, amid FTX's solvency crisis, his net worth was estimated to have dropped 94% in a day to $991.5 million, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, the largest one-day drop in the index's history.^[13][10] By November 11, 2022, the Bloomberg Billionaires Index considered Bankman-Fried to have no material wealth.^[14]

Before Bankman-Fried's wealth disappeared in November 2022, Bankman-Fried was a major donor to Democratic Party candidates.^[15][16] He was the second-largest individual donor to Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election, personally donating $5.2 million,^[17][18] and he donated $40 million, mostly to Democratic candidates, during the 2022 U.S. midterm elections.^[19]

Solvency crisis at FTX

Anonymous sources cited by Reuters stated that Bankman-Fried had transferred at least $4 billion from FTX to Alameda Research, without any disclosure to insiders or the public, earlier in 2022. The sources said that the money transferred had included customer funds, and that it was backed by FTT and shares in Robinhood.^[64][65] An anonymous source cited by the Wall Street Journal stated that Bankman-Fried had disclosed that Alameda owed FTX about $10 billion which were secured through customer funds stored in FTX when FTX had, at the time, $16 billion in customer assets.^[66] According to anonymous sources cited by the Wall Street Journal, the Chief Executive of Alameda Research Caroline Ellison told employees that Bankman-Fried was aware that FTX had lent its customers’ money to Alameda to help it meet its liabilities.^[67]