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The Guardian - US

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David Gerard

Sam Bankman-Fried was hailed as a crypto wonder child. What happened?

FTX Sam Bankman-Fried Crypto Alameda Steve Jobs United States Elon Musk Binance

Crypto Exchange FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried Portraits<br>Sam Bankman-Fried, co-founder and chief executive officer of FTX, in Hong Kong, China, on Tuesday, May 11, 2021. FTX, the digital-assets trading platform launched two years ago by Bankman-Fried, said it handled enough volume last month to make it one of the largest crypto exchanges. Photographer: Lam Yik/Bloomberg via Getty Images — ‘Bankman-Fried’s secret turned out to be a financial shell game.’ Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images

Last Tuesday, FTX, the second-largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world, closed withdrawals, blaming “severe liquidity problems”. By Friday, FTX had filed for bankruptcy.

After a stupendously profitable asset bubble in 2021, the cryptocurrency industry suffered harsh reversals in 2022. A string of high-profile collapses – Terra-Luna, Three Arrows Capital, Celsius Network, Voyager Digital – lost investors a fortune, tanked prices and demolished market confidence. But FTX’s sudden collapse caught almost everyone by surprise.

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