Who is Sam Bankman-Fried, the young billionaire who lost US$ 14,000 million in one day, 94% of his fortune

Until November 8, Sam Bankman-Fried, 30, had a personal fortune estimated at $15.2 billion. On November 9, her wealth plummeted to $991.5 million, a 94% drop. What happened?

Sam Bankman-Fried is founder of the FTX cryptocurrency platform. This company came to have a value of 32,000 million dollars, but it only took a week for it to declare bankruptcy.

LOOK: The 30-year-old billionaire who plans to give away 99% of his enormous fortune

On Friday, FTX announced that he appealed for the protection of the bankruptcy law in the united states and reported that Sam Bankman-Fried stepped down as director.

“FTX Trading (…) and approximately 130 companies affiliated with the FTX Group initiated the voluntary procedure of ‘chapter 11’” of the bankruptcy law in the United States, to “evaluate” its assets, it announced FTX in a statement posted on Twitter.

In this file photo illustration taken on November 13, 2022, the FTX cryptocurrency logo is displayed. (STEFANI REYNOLDS / AFP).

According to the AFP agency, Chapter 11 allows companies to reorganize during difficult periods without immediate pressure from creditors but under judicial supervision, while continuing to operate.

The subsidiaries concerned include exchange platforms FTX.us in the United States and FTX.com in the rest of the world, as well as the investment fund Alameda Research, launched by Bankman-Fried before FTX.

Bankman-Fried apologized “sincerely” in a tweet and added that FTX “He will do everything to raise funds.”

The beginning of the end

Sam Bankman-Fried was interviewed on Sunday by regulators in the Bahamas, the country where it is a resident and where it is also registered FTXaccording to a Bloomberg report.

The businessman told Reuters that he is still on the island, despite rumors that he could flee to the United Arab Emirates or Argentina.

According to The New York Times, The FTX founder acknowledges the scale of the spectacular collapse, but says it “could have been so much worse.”

The dizzying fall of FTX rocked the cryptocurrency world: a week ago, the group was considered the second largest cryptocurrency platform in the world, and Sam Bankman-Fried as a privileged interlocutor for regulators.

FTX collapsed after doubts were raised about its solvency following various reports, which led many users to rush to withdraw their money, leaving it cash-strapped and in search of ransom.

That capital injection never came and FTX ended up declaring bankruptcyassuring that this was the best formula to protect their clients and seek that they can recover their money.

As is known, FTX would have used billions of dollars from its clients to finance risky bets through its investment firm Alameda Researchan illegal practice in principle if it did not have the approval of the users.

Now, both the authorities of Bahamas as the USA are investigating possible crimes committed by the firm founded by Sam Bankman-Fried.

In this February 9, 2022 photo, Samuel Bankman-Fried, founder and CEO of FTX, testifies during a US Congressional hearing. (SAUL LOEB / AFP).

Who is Sam Bankman-Fried?

Sam Bankman-Fried was born on March 6, 1992 in the United States. According to Univision, she comes from a family of academics: her parents are professors at the Stanford University Law School.

He is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he studied Physics and a minor in Mathematics.

In 2009 Sam Bankman-Fried founded FTXtwo years after launching Alameda Research, a cryptocurrency exchange firm, and five years after beginning his career at investment firm Jane Street.

He was one of the largest donors to the Democratic Party in 2020.

“I wanted to get rich not because I liked money, but because I wanted to give it to charity”said Sam Bankman-Fried in an interview posted on YouTube by Nuseir Yasim on the Nas Daily channel, in January of this year.

Source: Elcomercio