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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Business
Edward Helmore in New York

‘I f****d up’: the rise and fall of US crypto king Sam Bankman-Fried

Sam Bankman-Fried, second right, chief executive of digital currency exchange FTX, testifies during a House agricultural committee hearing in May 2022 on changing financial market roles
Sam Bankman-Fried, second right, chief executive of digital currency exchange FTX, testifies during a House agricultural committee hearing in May 2022 on changing financial market roles. Photograph: Sipa US/Alamy

He drives a Toyota Corolla to work, lives in a house with 10 roommates and a goldendoodle dog named Gofer, sometimes sleeps under his desk on a beanbag and was, until this week, worth tens of billions of dollars.

But on Friday, Sam Bankman-Fried, a curly-haired crypto king and Democratic mega-donor who claimed to be reinventing digital finance, gave up a week-long fight to save FTX, which in three short years since being launched had become the world’s second largest digital currency exchange. He resigned as chief executive and the company and 130 affiliates were placed under US bankruptcy protection.

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