| Net Worth | $10 Million |
| Born | March 6, 1992 |
| Age | 30 Years Old |
| Place of Birth | Stanford, California, United States |
| Profession | Businessman, Investor |
| Education | Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) |
Sam Bankman-Fried is an American businessman who has a net worth of $10 million dollars. He is best known as the Founder & CEO of FTX, a Bahamian based cryptocurrency exchange.
Sam also managed FTX assets through it’s US subsidiary, FTX US. In October 2017 he founded Alameda Research, a quantitative cryptocurrency trading firm. He alleged to be making millions per day using his cryptocurrency arbitrage strategy.
As of November 2022, Sam Bankman-Fried has an estimated net worth of $10 million dollars.
Early Life and Education
Sam Bankman-Fried was born on March 6, 1992. Originally born in Stanford, California, United States. Bankman-Fried grew up in an upper-middle class Jewish family in California. While many news publications such as Forbes touted him as ”self-made”, he was far fetched from this perception.
His family is flattered with extremely distinguished backgrounds and deep connections in higher education, politics and finance. Both of his parents Barbara Fried and Joseph Bankman, are law professors at Stanford Law School. Furthermore, his aunt Linda P. Fried, is extremely accomplished and became the first female dean of Public Health at Columbia University.
Sam attended Crystal Springs Uplands High School, in Hillsborough, California. While in high school, he attended the Canada/USA math camp and began developing a passion for numbers. After graduating high school, Bankman-Fried attended MIT from 2010 – 2014 (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and lived in a group house called Epsilon Theta. He went on to earn a degree in Physics with a minor in mathematics.
Below we will go into more detail about Sam Bankman-Fried’s career highlights, entrepreneurial journey, questionable dealings, political affiliations, rise to fame and subsequent fall!
Career
Sam Bankman Fried’s professional career began in 2003, when he started working at proprietary trading firm, Jane Street Capital. After interning for the firm in the summer, he returned as a full-time employee upon graduating from MIT.
Four years later, he left the firm and moved to Berkeley, California. There he would briefly work at the Centre for Effective Altruism as the director of development before quitting.
In November 2017, Bankman-Fried founded the infamous cryptocurrency quantitative trading firm, Alameda Research. In the early years before the founding of FTX, Sam and his co-founder Tara Mac were said the be making millions per day using their well-known crypto arbitrage strategy.
This involved buying large-scale orders on multiple cryptocurrency exchanges and making a profit from the spread between the price of the assets (Often Bitcoin). Reports have said that at the peak, Alameda Research was moving more than $50M in volume per day. Though the actual figures could be much less given a majority of the company’s assets were held in their FTT token.
Founding of FTX Derivatives Exchange
In late 2018, he attended a cryptocurrency conference in China and moved to Honk Hong. There he developed his master plan and founded FTX cryptocurrency exchange in April 2019.
Bankman-Fried’s dealings between Alameda Research and FTX has long been a topic of concern for many institutional investors who raised red flags. However, everything changed in 2020 when the stock market was bailed out by central banks and easy money policies fuelled asset valuations in both the public and private markets.
In July 2021, FTX and Bankman-Fried went on to raise a Series B round of more than $1 Billion USD led by Silicon Valley’s, Sequoia Capital. Other notable institutional investors participated in the round such as New Enterprise Associates and Lightspeed Venture Partners.
His influence spanned beyond political donations, and his elaborate corporate structure and business dealings had his hand in every major sector he could participate in. Before FTX’s bankruptcy, he reported that he would help fund Elon Musk’s deal to buy social media platform, Twitter. However, Elon Musk would call his bluff after his due diligence indicated that Bankman-Fried did not have the liquid cash and that he was full of it.
As of November 2022, Sam Bankman-Fried has an estimated net worth of $500 million dollars.
Sam Bankman-Fried Net Worth: How Much of FTX Does Sam Own?
Sam Bankman-Fried’s net worth was largely tied to his ownership in FTX, FTX US and Alameda Research. At the peak of FTX’s valuation, Bankman-Fried was worth an estimated $22 Billion and owned a 54% stake in FTX and a 70% stake in it’s subsidiary, FTX US.
When FTX’s implosion transpires, reporters estimated that Bankman-Fried’s net worth had dropped to zero overnight. However, we do not believe that to be the case.
On November 12th, news circulated that an estimated $400M worth of FTT tokens were hacked amid bankruptcy woes. Furthermore, Reuters estimates that $1-2 Billion in client funds are still unaccounted for.
While the entire FTX empire has gone to zero, and billions in client funds are still unaccounted for, Bankman-Fried is likely to have money hiding elsewhere.
Binance Vs. FTX Controversy
There has long been controversy between the rival cryptocurrency exchange founders Sam Bankman-Fried and Changpeng Zhao. Before FTX was founded in 2019, Binance was at the top of the cryptocurrency exchange empire.
However, things since took a turn as FTX grew to the second largest cryptocurrency exchange in less than two years. With Bankman-Fried’s deep connections he was able to raise more than $1 Billion dollars from silicon valley investors. He was also able to get some of the world’s most successful stars like Tom Brady and Stephen Curry to be both investors and brand ambassadors, sucking in billions of customer funds.
But where did the controversy and rivalry stem from? To keep things short, it stemmed from their opposing stances on cryptocurrency regulation.
Binance Investment In FTX
The relationship between Sam Bankman-Fried and Changpeng Zhao was very cordial in the beginning, as they both set sights to revolutionize the cryptocurrency industry. So much so, that Changpeng Zhao invested roughly $500 Million in FTX’s derivatives exchange.
However, their relationship began to dwindle as Bankman-Fried used his deep connections in higher education and politics to pioneer regulation for the cryptocurrency industry. While meeting with members of congress, he would often criticize Zhao behind closed doors in public meetings. Some said that he would do this in order to gain political support and power over his rival, Binance.
This political strategy inevitably led to the derailment of FTX, FTX US and Alameda Research. The dispute between the two rivals led to Zhao announcing to twitter that he would sell all his FTT Tokens, a cryptocurrency created by FTX.
Unfortunately, news later surfaced that a large portion of FTX’s assets were held in FTT tokens which were printed out of thin air. Some have also speculated that Bankman-Fried and his co-conspirators used FTX’s customer assets to gamble through their propriertary trading firm, Alameda Research.
The Reveal
After Binance revealed that they would be selling all of their FTT tokens, this began to spook customer who held their assets on FTX and FTX US. This is because over the course of the last year, a number of cryptocurrency firms such as Voyager Digital and Celsius went bankrupt.
Bankman-Fried and Alameda Research’s CEO, Caroline, took to Twitter ensuring customers that their assets were safe and that the liquidty crunch only had to do with FTX.com. However, it was later revealed that FTX US was at the brink of implosion, subsequently leading to the bankruptcy of both entities.
Initially, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, took to Twitter offering to buy FTX in a non-binding agreement for pennies on the dollar. This would mean that Binance could back out of the deal at any point, and that is exactly what they did.
As a result of corporate due diligence, as well as the latest news reports regarding mishandled customer funds and alleged US agency investigations, we have decided that we will not pursue the potential acquisition of https://t.co/FQ3MIG381f.
— Binance (@binance) November 9, 2022
On November 9th, 2022 at 4:00PM EST, Binance took to Twitter that they backed out of their non-binding agreement to acquire FTX.com. They explained their decision as a result of ”mishandled customer funds and alleged US agency investigations”.
This would shake up the entire cryptocurrency market, and since the fall of FTX cryptocurrency exchange, BlockFi would pause customer deposits and withdrawals amid alleged bankruptcy woes.
Political Donations & Affiliations
Bankman-Fried showered both the republican and democratic parties with political donations before the mid term elections. It is reported that he donated roughly $37 million during the mid terms, with a majority of the donations to Democratic candidates.
The single biggest donation was to the ”Protect Our Future” project totalling $27 million. The beneficiaries included Democratic runner Carrick Flynn ($10.7 million) in Oregon’s 6th district, proposing for a greener economy. It also included incoming congresswoman Jasmine Crockett ($1.5 million) in Texas’ 100th district.
When it was all said and done, Sam Bankman-Fried became the Democratic parties second largest donor, and six-largest overall.
SEC Chairman – Gary Gensler
Cryptocurrency regulation has been a hot topic in recent years as the new industry strives to become a primary asset class like Stocks, Bonds, Real Estate and Precious Metals. However, during 2020 and 2021 as easy money policies fuelled investors disposable income, cryptocurrency theft grew alongside it.
During 2020 cryptocurrency theft was $7.8 billion and grew to over $14 billion in 2021. While many have become proponents for more stringent laws and regulation in the cryptocurrency industry, Binance CEO, Changpeng Zhao continues to fight against it.
However, this didn’t stop Sam-Bankman-Fried to be cryptocurrency’s ”saving grace” having multiple meetings with SEC Chairman, Gary Gensler. This is no small feat, as only two major players in crypto have managed to have a meeting with the SEC’s chairman.
How Did The Relationship Come About?
Over the past week many have began to speculate and wonder how Bankman-Fried was able meet with Gensler in the first place. They uncovered some revealing truths and show just how deep political connections can get you access that some can only dream of.
Alameda Research CEO, Caroline Ellison, was just as privileged as he was. Her father Glenn Ellison seemed to have connections with SEC Chairman Gary Gensler at MIT, who was reportedly his former boss. This has led to many speculating the deep ties that Bankman-Fried initially had with some of the most powerful people in finance.
Furthermore, the General Counsel for FTX allegedly used to be a lead counsel to Gary Gensler when he was the chair of the CFTC (Commodity Futures Trading Commission).
With these coincidental ties to Alameda Research, FTX, and the SEC, it is no surprise that FTX’s implosion is taking the cryptocurrency industry by storm. While the SEC and DOJ begin its probe for potential criminal charges against Bankman-Fried and FTX, it is clear that there is more moving parts to this fallen empire than some may think.
Sam Bankman-Fried Investments
Sam Bankman-Fried’s commercial success as a businessman and investor has bolstered him a net worth of $10 million dollars. We will share some of Sam Bankman-Fried’s investments below!
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BetDEX – Seed Round.
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Momento NFT – Seed Round.
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Web3Auth – Series A.
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PlayUp – Venture Round.
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Swim – Seed Round.
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Kwil – Venture Round.
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SecureSave – Seed Round.
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Empiric Network – Seed Round.
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Meow – Series A.
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Limit Break – Venture Round.
11 Best Sam Bankman-Fried Quotes
“Sometimes the obvious product is the right one. Other times it’s the lazy one.”
Sam Bankman-Fried
“When ”consumer protection” goes awry: exploitative data fees and restrictive market access combines with insane leverage and forced liquidation.”
Sam Bankman-Fried
“Facebook has the largest possible social media network on the web. They won. So what’s next? Start building social media 3.0.”
Sam Bankman-Fried
“It’s crucial that our markets infrastructure and regulation holds DCO and FCM margin/leverage.”
Sam Bankman-Fried
“Sometimes the only thing standing between what is and what could be is the will to get there, whatever it requires.”
Sam Bankman-Fried
“The altruistic thing to do is to take chances. Seek out the opportunities with the biggest upside, not the ones which are the safest.”
Sam Bankman-Fried
“A pretty good trader is someone who gets half of things right and changes their mind a lot.”
Sam Bankman-Fried
“I totally understand that lots of people will disagree with me on a lot of things. That’s great, it means I have people to learn from.”
Sam Bankman-Fried
“When things become too meta, It is often a good indication to launch new products.”
Sam Bankman-Fried
“Decentralization is hard to define, and it can mean a lot of different things. This also doesn’t capture the ”value of network” effect that Bitcoin and Ethereum have. In general, I think the narratives surrounding it are often misconstrued.”
Sam Bankman-Fried
“When deployed correctly, modern finance can be breathtaking: seamlessly providing financing to innovative ideas, with the sharpest investors getting paid back a lot in the long term.”
Sam Bankman-Fried
Sam Bankman-Fried Net Worth Summary
Sam Bankman-Fried is an American businessman and investor from Stanford, California.
He is best known as the Founder & CEO of FTX, a Bahamian based cryptocurrency exchange.
Sam Bankman-Fried’s Net Worth is estimated to be $10 Million USD.
Sam Bankman-Fried Social Media
- Facebook (@SamBankman-Fried)
- Instagram (@SamBankman-Fried)
- Twitter (@SamBankman-Fried)
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What is Sam Bankman-Fried Net Worth?
Sam Bankman-Fried’s Net Worth is estimated to be around $10 million USD.
How Tall is Sam Bankman-Fried?
Sam Bankman-Fried is listed at 5 ft 8 (1.73m).
Who is Sam Bankman-Fried’s wife?
Sam Bankman-Fried is not currently married. Although, there is rumours that he is in a serious relationship.
