Sam Bankman-Fried / SBF

About

Sam Bankman-Fried, also known as SBF, is an American businessperson responsible for the FTX cryptocurrency exchange that was founded in 2019. He rapidly became a billionaire during the early 2020s and a major donor and investor to various groups and causes because of his work in crypto, including the DNC. In November 2022, FTX and Bankman-Fried's fortunes collapsed in the FTX Crypto Crash amid allegations of wrongdoing and financial crimes, which subsequently spawned a wave of discussions and memes mocking him online. SBF's purported relationship with Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison was also a topic of viral discussion around the same time. In mid-December 2022, SBF was then arrested in the Bahamas.

Career

Sam Bankman-Fried was born in 1992 in California to two law professors specializing in corporate compliance. He attended MIT, graduated in 2014 and began working as a trader at Jane Street Capital. In 2017, he founded Alameda Research and became involved with Effective Altruism, a philosophy that promotes utilitarian charitable giving and is popular with many in Silicon Valley.^[1]

In 2019, Bankman-Fried launched FTX, a cryptocurrency exchange that quickly received significant media buzz and private investment. He appeared on the cover of Fortune magazine in August 2022 and had by then accumulated a fortune of around $17 billion.^[2] With a group of collaborators in an alleged polycule including Caroline Ellison, SBF ran several companies and reportedly maintained a group chat called "WireFraud."^[22]

FTT Scam Allegations and FTX Crash

In November 2022, following a tweet by rival and Binance founder CZ,^[10] public confidence in FTX and Alameda Research was shaken, with many suspecting Bankman-Fried of running a scam regarding their cryptocurrency FTT. As users sought to withdraw their money, the exchange faced a liquidity crisis and didn't have enough cash on hand to pay people back, prompting a crash. Bankman-Fried attempted to calm nerves, but ended up filing bankruptcy for both companies on November 11th, 2022, and apologizing (seen below) on November 10th while insisting he would return all the money in a long Twitter thread.^[3]

As of November 14th, 2022, it is unclear where Bankman-Fried is exactly, with rumors of arrest and flight to other countries spreading online. According to Cointelegraph,^[11] SBF is purportedly in the Bahamas under supervision but looking to flee to Dubai.

Following the collapse of FTX, many joked that Bankman-Fried should be played by actor Jonah Hill in a biopic covering the viral event. For example, Twitter user @tomgara joked on November 10th, 2022, about Hill playing Bankman-Fried, earning almost 13,000 likes in three days (seen below).^[7]

Audiences expected some sort of show of Bankman-Fried and FTX to arise because Michael Lewis (author of The Big Short, a bestselling book and later movie about the 2007 banking crisis) had reportedly been researching Bankman-Fried for several months.^[8]

Vox DMs Leak

On November 16th, 2022, a series of DMs between Sam Bankman-Fried and Vox journalist Kelsey Piper was published on the Vox Media site. Piper is one of the core writers at Future Perfect, a division of Vox funded and inspired by the Effective Altruism movement. SBF was a major donor to Effective Altruism, and Piper has been involved in the philosophy since she was a student at Stanford. Last year, Piper also notably wrote a profile of SBF for Vox's Future Perfect.

In the article published on November 16th, 2022, Piper claims SBF sent her a DM the day before on November 15th and they had an hour-long conversation via text. After confirming with SBF that his account hadn't been hacked, Piper shared screenshots of their conversation in the Vox article titled "Sam Bankman-Fried tries to explain himself."

In their discussion, SBF said that the entire scam had been a mistake and entirely unintentional, while also stating that he regretted filing for bankruptcy. He sketched out a view of ethics opposed to the "game we woke westerners play," arguing that all which really matters is who wins and who loses and saying all the things he'd said before about morality were "bs" (seen below).^[12]

On the evening of the 16th, after the DMs were published on Vox's website, SBF then composed a long tweet thread that began by tweeting "What," then spelling out "HAPPENED" one letter at a time (seen below, left) describing his efforts to pay back customers and investors. He linked to the "A Softer World" webcomic series to describe his feelings and expressed regret about the release of his DMs to Vox. He reiterated that he hoped to get everybody's money back to them (seen below, right).^[13]

Sex Tape Leak

On November 16th, 2022, a website went up from someone claiming to be an FTX insider, saying that they would post a sex tape of Caroline Ellison, Sam Bankman-Fried and other members of their polycule in order to "hold them accountable."^[14]

Arrest

On December 12th, 2022, Sam Bankman-Fried was arrested by authorities in the Bahamas after authorities in New York State charged him with several crimes, including wire fraud and money laundering.^[15] That same day, the Attorney General of the Bahamas issued a letter explaining the arrest of SBF (seen below).^[16]

Bankman-Fried's arrest came just hours after he'd participated in a Twitter Spaces event hosted by @unusual_whales, an account that shares news about the financial markets. During the Spaces event, SBF was reportedly gaming and dodged many difficult questions (seen below, left).^[17] His lack of clarity and brazenness in continuing to give public statements entertained many posters, including @meta_rach, who received 17 likes for tweeting a meme about their reaction on December 12th (seen below, right).^[18]

Following SBF's arrest, many users posted memes comparing him to Jeffrey Epstein, participating in an ongoing narrative that theorizes SBF's political donations supposedly link him to a larger conspiracy — particularly prominent among some right-wing users who are critical of his contributions to the DNC (though he donated to both parties).^[23] These included Twitter user @MattIJaramillo, who posted a meme to that effect on December 13th, gathering almost 2,000 likes in less than a day (seen below, left).^[19] Some, such as Washington Post writer Dave Weigel, were critical of this emerging narrative and pointed out its reported lack of credibility (seen below, right).^[20]

Others posted less political memes mocking SBF's perceived intelligence, comparing him to a clown, such as Twitter user @MinisterOfNFTs who received almost 3,500 likes in less than a day on December 13th for their meme (shown below).

Some also speculated that Caroline Ellison, former lover and alleged co-conspirator of SBF, had flipped on him and evidence she gave led to his arrest, but these rumors were unconfirmed as of December 13th, 2022.

Online History

Sam Bankman-Fried has had a Twitter^[9] account since March 2019, where he's accumulated over 1 million followers as of November 2022.

He is a noted enthusiast of the game League of Legends. A highly memed profile of Bankman-Fried by Sequoia Capital revealed that he had been playing the game while giving a pitch on Zoom for FTX that inspired people at Sequoia, who called it "one of those your hair-is-blown-back type of meetings." SBF was reportedly gaming the entire time that he was speaking to them. Sequoia notably invested $214 million in FTX.^[5]

An investigation by the Financial Times^[6] reportedly found that SBF is "not very good at" League of Legends.

Related People

Caroline Ellison

Caroline Ellison is an American business executive most well-known as the CEO of Alameda Research, a quantitative trading firm founded by Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) in 2018. She is rumored to have dated Bankman-Fried with an anonymous source cited by the Wall Street Journal alleging that her company, Alameda Research, was lent $10 billion by Bankman-Fried's cryptocurrency exchange FTX. Ellison is also known for her Tumblr blog worldoptimization, which surfaced in light of the November 2022 FTX bankruptcy scandal and crash. The page contained Ellison's musings about polyamorous love, sexuality and business prowess, with many of the posts being used in memes alongside other memes depicting Ellison herself.

External References