{"id":37636,"date":"2022-07-12T19:20:47","date_gmt":"2022-07-12T16:20:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/?p=37636"},"modified":"2025-08-29T19:28:50","modified_gmt":"2025-08-29T16:28:50","slug":"who-is-sam-bankman-fried","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/who-is-sam-bankman-fried\/","title":{"rendered":"Who is Sam Bankman-Fried?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-text-wrappers-cards single_card\">\n<h2 class=\"card_label\">Key facts<\/h2>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Sam Bankman-Fried, also known as SBF, is the founder of the crypto-derivatives exchange FTX and the firm Alameda Research.<\/li>\n<li>In 2022 he was named to the TIME 100. Forbes lists him among the wealthiest figures in the blockchain and cryptocurrency industry.<\/li>\n<li>Bankman-Fried\u2019s personal fortune is roughly $24bn. He is also the sole director of Emergent Fidelity Technologies, which owns a 7.6% stake in online broker Robinhood.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-block-text-wrappers-cards single_card\">\n<h2 class=\"card_label\">How did Bankman-Fried become interested in cryptocurrencies?<\/h2>\n<p>The future entrepreneur was born in 1992 to two Stanford law professors. He graduated from high school in the San Francisco suburbs and attended a Canada\u2013US summer programme for gifted students. In 2014 he earned a BSc in physics and mathematics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"819\" src=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sam_bankman_fried-min-1024x819.png\" alt=\"\u041a\u0442\u043e \u0442\u0430\u043a\u043e\u0439 \u0421\u044d\u043c \u0411\u044d\u043d\u043a\u043c\u0430\u043d-\u0424\u0440\u0438\u0434?\" class=\"wp-image-142490\" srcset=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sam_bankman_fried-min-1024x819.png 1024w, https:\/\/forklog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sam_bankman_fried-min-300x240.png 300w, https:\/\/forklog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sam_bankman_fried-min-768x614.png 768w, https:\/\/forklog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sam_bankman_fried-min.png 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n<p>After university, Bankman-Fried joined Jane Street Capital, trading futures, ETFs and equities. Alongside his main job, he served as director of development at the Centre for Effective Altruism.<\/p>\n<p>He learned about bitcoin from Gary Van, a fraternity friend from MIT.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-block-text-wrappers-cards single_card\">\n<h2 class=\"card_label\">When did Bankman-Fried found Alameda Research?<\/h2>\n<p>In September 2017 SBF registered <a href=\"https:\/\/www.alameda-research.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Alameda Research<\/a>, which within a month was operating under the name Delaware LLC. Gary Van worked on the prototype for the firm\u2019s future automated trading system.<\/p>\n<p>Alameda\u2019s initial edge was arbitraging the \u201ckimchi premium\u201d \u2014 the gap between bitcoin prices on South Korean exchanges and global averages. From 2016 to 2018 the premium averaged 4.8%, peaking at nearly 55%. The team arbitraged not only in South Korea but also in Japan. According to Intelligencer, by late 2018 they were executing at least $25m in daily bitcoin trades.<\/p>\n<p>By 2021 the strategy had run its course: the kimchi premium fell to zero.<\/p>\n<p>At the time of writing, Alameda Research is one of the largest market makers, using sophisticated market-neutral trading algorithms. It focuses on digital-asset management, trading, OTC deals and market-making services.<\/p>\n<p>SBF recently stepped down as chief executive; Alameda Research\u2019s operations remain unchanged.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-block-text-wrappers-cards single_card\">\n<h2 class=\"card_label\">What does Alameda invest in?<\/h2>\n<p>Alameda Research invests in a range of crypto and fintech projects.<\/p>\n<p>In the first quarter of 2022 the firm invested in 20 projects across <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/what-is-web3\">Web3<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/what-is-decentralised-finance-defi\">DeFi<\/a>,<a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/what-are-nfts\"> NFT<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/what-is-the-metaverse\">metaverses<\/a>. They included the Move-to-Earn (M2E) leader Stepn, the <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/what-is-a-smart-contract\">smart-contract<\/a> platform Near, and <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/what-is-polygon-matic\">Polygon<\/a> (MATIC), a network of secure L2 solutions and autonomous sidechains, among others.<\/p>\n<p>Alameda Research\u2019s core bets are tied to Solana and its ecosystem. In June 2021 the project closed one of the largest funding rounds in the industry\u2019s history. Alameda Research was a lead investor in Solana Labs, the developer of the Solana blockchain.<\/p>\n<p>Alameda is also a lead investor in the <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/alameda-leads-40-million-financing-round-for-defi-project-oxygen\">Oxygen<\/a> protocol launched in the Serum decentralised ecosystem, the Tulip crypto-lending yield aggregator, and the Web3 wallet <a href=\"https:\/\/mathwallet.org\/ru-ru\/\">Math Wallet<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-block-text-wrappers-cards single_card\">\n<h2 class=\"card_label\">How did Bankman-Fried create FTX?<\/h2>\n<p>Soon after launching Alameda, Bankman-Fried grew disillusioned with crypto exchanges. They were ill-suited to large trades and to professional traders.<\/p>\n<p>In May 2019 he founded FTX, headquartered in Hong Kong, with Alameda Research as the main liquidity provider.<\/p>\n<p>FTX targeted sophisticated investors trading derivatives. The exchange regularly rolled out novel, complex instruments for professionals. For example, in 2021 it <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/ftx-adds-tokenised-shares-of-apple-tesla-and-amazon-to-listing\">launched<\/a> trading in tokenised securities, and in 2022 it said it would start trading tokenised shares in 60 leading companies.<\/p>\n<p>In just three years the exchange chalked up striking gains. The company\u2019s valuation reached $32bn, and FTX raised $400m in a Series C round.<\/p>\n<p>According to its <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.ftx.com\/blog\/end-of-year-2021\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">annual report<\/a>, FTX\u2019s spot trading volume rose 2,400% to $719bn. At its November 2021 peak, daily spot volume exceeded $13.8bn, up 1,690% on 2020. The exchange had 5m registered users.<\/p>\n<p>FTX expanded: in early 2022 it announced FTX Europe, FTX Australia and FTX Japan. It also set up a venture arm \u2014 FTX Ventures \u2014 to deploy $2bn into startups at various stages.<\/p>\n<p>In a recent interview Bankman-Fried said Alameda Research and FTX intended to support crypto firms amid the market downturn. Earlier, FTX\u2019s operator had <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.news\/bitkoin-birzha-liquid-odolzhila-120-mln-u-ftx\/\">helped<\/a> the Japanese exchange Liquid after <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.news\/bitkoin-birzhu-liquid-vzlomali-na-80-mln\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">its hot wallets were hacked<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>In July 2022 the US arm, FTX US, struck a deal with lending platform BlockFi that provided a $400m credit facility and an option to acquire the company for $240m. The platform\u2019s losses were about $80m. BlockFi\u2019s chief said the partnership would allow the losses to be covered without affecting client funds.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-block-text-wrappers-cards single_card\">\n<h2 class=\"card_label\">What is Sam Bankman-Fried\u2019s net worth?<\/h2>\n<p>In 2022 he was named to the TIME 100 and is one of the richest people in the crypto industry according to Forbes.<\/p>\n<p>At its peak, Bankman-Fried\u2019s personal fortune was estimated at $24bn \u2014 it <a href=\"https:\/\/finance.yahoo.com\/news\/ftx-ceo-sam-bankman-fried-profile-085444366.html\">consisted<\/a> largely of roughly 90% of FTX, FTT tokens and other cryptocurrencies.<\/p>\n<p>Bankman-Fried is also the sole director and owner of Emergent Fidelity Technologies, which holds a 7.6% stake in online broker Robinhood. The firm bought 56.28m Robinhood shares for $648.29m at a purchase price of $11.52.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-block-text-wrappers-cards single_card\">\n<h2 class=\"card_label\">Is SBF a philanthropist?<\/h2>\n<p>He has long been interested in the philosophy and social movement of \u201ceffective altruism\u201d, whose core idea is to do good on the basis of facts and rational argument.<\/p>\n<p>In 2020 he donated <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/ftx-ceo-sam-bankman-fried-enters-the-top-20-sponsors-of-joe-bidens-presidential-campaign\">$5.22m<\/a> to Joe Biden\u2019s presidential campaign fund, and in 2024 Bankman-Fried will allocate more than $100m to the US presidential race.<\/p>\n<p>He has taken the Giving Pledge, a public commitment by wealthy individuals and families to donate the majority of their wealth to charity.<\/p>\n<p>His plans include creating a $1bn fund to help prevent another pandemic.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-block-text-wrappers-cards single_card\">\n<h2 class=\"card_label\">What does Bankman-Fried think about bitcoin?<\/h2>\n<p>Sam Bankman-Fried has said repeatedly that he should not be seen as a \u201cbitcoin maximalist\u201d; he does not believe the leading cryptocurrency will be a primary means of payment.<\/p>\n<p>In his view, bitcoin cannot scale to millions of transactions per second; it is inefficient and its blockchain carries environmental downsides.<\/p>\n<p>He argues that a proof-of-stake consensus is better suited to a functional crypto-payments network. Bitcoin can and should remain an asset, a commodity and a store of value, while low transactions per second (TPS) can be addressed with L2 solutions.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-block-text-wrappers-cards single_card\">\n<h2 class=\"card_label\">What does he think about other cryptocurrencies?<\/h2>\n<p>From the outset, Bankman-Fried predicted a bright future for projects built on Solana.<\/p>\n<p>He believes that Solana\u2019s speed and scalability could make it not only a leading blockchain but \u201cthe new bitcoin\u201d. In early 2021 SBF won a bet: he backed SOL on <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SBF_FTX\/status\/1347964322459262977?s=20&#038;t=tk-X8EAHyNaV-Z5SZRwrmA\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Twitter<\/a> when it traded at $3; the token went on to reach an all-time high of $250 that year.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-block-text-wrappers-cards single_card\">\n<h2 class=\"card_label\"><strong>Further reading<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/who-is-satoshi-nakamoto\">Who is Satoshi Nakamoto?<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/who-is-mike-novogratz\">Who is Mike Novogratz?<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/what-is-grayscale-investments\">What is Grayscale Investments?<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/who-is-vitalik-buterin\">Who is Vitalik Buterin?<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/what-is-the-blockchain-trilemma\">What is the blockchain trilemma?<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How did Sam Bankman-Fried get into crypto? When did he found Alameda Research, and what does the firm invest in? What is his net worth? We answer in ForkLog cards.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37637,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"select":"1","news_style_id":"1","cryptorium_level":"2","_short_excerpt_text":"","creation_source":"","_metatest_mainpost_news_update":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2113],"tags":[2136,2118,1403],"class_list":["post-37636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cryptorium","tag-101-people","tag-101-trading-and-investing","tag-sam-bankman-fried"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"107","promo_type":"1","layout_type":"1","short_excerpt":"","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37636"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37636\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37638,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37636\/revisions\/37638"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}