Sam Bankman-Fried is the Co-Founder and CEO of crypto exchange platform FTX
Sam Bankman-Fried donned a suit and tie this week, ditching his favorite dark hoodie and t-shirt to attend a hearing before US Senators.
Lawmakers summoned the 29-year-old billionaire on Wednesday to discuss digital asset regulation as the co-founder and CEO of crypto exchange platform FTX.
Less than three years after its founding, the company is valued at just $32 billion, a market capitalization on par with giants Coinbase and Binance.
The personal wealth of Mr. Bankman-Fried, a vegan who sleeps 4 hours a night and has become the face of crypto, is estimated at nearly $25 billion by Forbes magazine – putting him in Top 70 richest people on the planet.
“It’s pretty bipartisan,” the young boss told AFP of the hearing. “Many Senators are really interested in learning more about space and figuring out how there can be more federal oversight.”
From Hong Kong to Bahamas
The son of Stanford Law School professors and an elite Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) graduate, Mr. Bankman-Fried worked as a Wall Street broker before switching to cryptocurrency in 2017.
He has observed a huge price difference between online platforms where people can buy and sell cryptocurrencies and take advantage of loopholes by buying and selling digital assets with very high frequency. high.
The price difference in 2018 was 5-25% between US and Japanese exchanges, he said, which means that by simply moving assets from one platform to another, he can make money.
“There is huge demand for cryptocurrencies from Japan and there are not many liquidity providers,” he added.
The young entrepreneur who created a crypto investment fund, Alameda Research, moved to Hong Kong and later launched FTX with Gary Wang, who is now the platform’s chief technology officer.
Mr. Bankman-Fried now lives in the Bahamas, where taxes are virtually zero, and the foundation is also headquartered in the Caribbean nation.
He defended his choice of location by the fact that it is “one of the few countries with a comprehensive licensing regime for cryptocurrencies and cryptocurrency exchanges.”
In media appearances and on Twitter, where he went through the SBF, Mr. Bankman-Fried has been a strong advocate for smoother access to the crypto market for the general public, especially in the United States.
“It would be great for everyone involved if there was a regulated path to licensing and federal oversight,” he said.
A subsidiary for American customers, FTX US, opened in 2020.
FTX’s success has enabled the platform to form prestigious partnerships, including with recently retired American football legend Tom Brady and his wife, former Brazilian model Gisele Bundchen .
The company will also run an ad during Sunday’s Super Bowl finale, promising to give away some bitcoin to be determined at the time of the ad’s broadcast.
‘Effective altruism’
Mr. Bankman-Fried, who says he maintains a spartan lifestyle, identifies with the belief in “effective altruism”, a movement that aims to use careful analysis to figure out how to use its resources to achieve help others the most.
Mr. Bankman-Fried, who has pledged to give away most of the wealth he will make.
He estimates that he has donated between $50-100 million to causes such as fighting for animal rights, fighting neglected tropical diseases, and reducing global warming.
Cryptocurrencies have faced fierce criticism for arguing they contribute to the catastrophic warming of the Earth because their mining process requires too much electricity, which can come from fossil fuels. .
Mr. Bankman-Fried said he believes the process of creating cryptocurrencies as well as transactions will increasingly be done using renewable energy.
Aware of the incredible amount of money he is raising, Mr. Bankman-Fried, who is among the biggest donors to US President Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign, has no problem with the numbers. money is public.
“If you’re trying to make a lot of positive impact in the world, that’s probably going to be the kind of things people will see,” he added.
