Sam Bankman-Fried built FTX into one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world in just three years, cultivating an image as crypto's most trustworthy figure while quietly funneling billions of dollars in customer deposits to Alameda Research, a trading firm he also owned.
A November 2022 report revealed the extent of Alameda's reliance on FTX customer funds, triggering a wave of withdrawals FTX couldn't cover. Within ten days, a rescue deal from rival exchange Binance fell through, and FTX filed for bankruptcy on November 11, 2022, with roughly $8 billion in customer funds missing.
Bankman-Fried's personal fortune, once estimated at $26 billion, was declared essentially worthless within days — one of the fastest wealth destructions in history. He was convicted on seven counts of fraud and conspiracy in 2023 and sentenced to 25 years in prison.
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