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| Category | Exchange |
Biography:
At the relatively young age of 29, Sam Bankman-Fried runs the world’s fourth-largest cryptocurrency exchange by trade volume, FTX, and is also the CEO of billion-dollar crypto market maker Alameda Research. But all things have their humble beginnings.
After finishing his physics degree at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2014, Bankman-Fried spent three years as a trader at the quantitative trading firm Jane Street Capital before starting Alameda in 2017. During his college years, Bankman-Fried developed an affinity for a life philosophy that still guides him to this day — effective altruism. That is, the philosophical belief that one should aim to bring about the greatest amount of good to the largest amount of people.
As for FTX, the exchange quickly grew to a staggering valuation of $32.5 billion within approximately three years. In his spare time, if any — as per his infamous workaholic routine — Bankman-Fried is an avid philanthropist who plans to eventually give away most of his 11-figure fortune. Allegedly, however, he has only given away 0.1% of his net worth so far.
Last year, Bankman-Fried moved FTX’s headquarters from Hong Kong to The Bahamas, along with moving there himself, citing a better crypto regulatory framework in the latter jurisdiction. The Bahamas was the first country in the world to adopt a central bank digital currency, known as the Sand Dollar. Furthermore, Bankman-Fried cites the island’s lively, safe and lockdown-free environment as a reason for the relocation.
Bankman-Fried’s 2021:
Perhaps the biggest pinnacle of recognition came last October when FTX secured naming rights to Miami’s NBA stadium until 2040. The FTX arena is at the heart of one of the most affluent cities globally when it comes to crypto adoption. During the Miami Heat’s opening season, the exchange gave away $500 in crypto to every patron seated in a specific facility section. Prior to that, FTX also became the official sponsor of major league baseball. Toward the end of the year, the exchange announced partnerships with Washington D.C. sports teams, including exclusive rights to their token drops.
Lofty accomplishments aside, achieving regulatory compliance nevertheless remained FTX’s main objective. Sam Bankman-Fried played a big part of the year’s congressional hearings, and called on crypto exchanges to voluntarily report transactional activity to avoid market manipulation.
As for Alameda, the quantitative firm has grown to trade anywhere between $1 billion to a reported $10 billion worth of cryptocurrencies each day.
Bankman-Fried’s 2022:
For 2022, Bankman-Fried expects blockchain speeding, scaling and regulation to be the biggest themes. FTX will soon be launching a Visa debit card for users to spend their crypto at fiat merchant terminals directly. Keeping the momentum of its previous years’ spending spree on sports partnerships, FTX recently unveiled a $2 billion venture fund to back global blockchain and Web3 entities.
The CEO also believes that stablecoins should be better reported and audited, claiming that more transparency would solve “80% of the problems while allowing stablecoins to thrive onshore.” Today, Bankman-Fried urges regulators to create a unified crypto network and consider that focusing on disclosure and fraud prevention may be more important than whether crypto assets should be classified as securities.