A 30-year-old crypto billionaire wants to give his fortune away
The Economic Club of New York has hosted kings, prime ministers, and presidents, as well as Amazon.com Inc.’s Jeff Bezos and JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s Jamie Dimon. Central bankers’ comments at the 115-year-old organization have moved markets. Sam Bankman-Fried, a 30-year-old cryptocurrency billionaire, is probably the first person to play a computer game while giving a talk.
As the featured guest one morning in February, Bankman-Fried looks schlubby as usual, reclining on a gaming chair in blue shorts and a gray T-shirt advertising his cryptocurrency exchange, FTX, his mop of curly hair flattened by his headphones. He’s speaking by Zoom from his office in the Bahamas.
Off camera, the detritus of someone who more or less lives at work litters his desk: crumpled bills from the U.S. and Hong Kong, nine tubes of lip balm, a stick of deodorant, a 1.5‑pound canister of sea salt labeled “SBF’s salt shaker,” and an open packet of chickpea korma that he had for lunch the day before. The beanbag where his assistant says he sleeps most weekdays is so close he could practically roll onto it.
As he fields questions about how the U.S. should regulate his industry, he pulls up a fantasy game called Storybook Brawl, chooses to play as “Peter Pants,” and prepares for battle with someone who goes by “Funky Kangaroo.”
“We’re anticipating a lot of growth in the United States,” Bankman-Fried says as he casts a spell on one of the knights in his fairy-tale army.
The novelty of appearances like this has long since worn off for Bankman-Fried, who’s testified before Congress twice since December. The previous weekend, he watched the Super Bowl from box seats just in front of NBA star Steph Curry—an FTX endorser.
There was lunch with basketball legend
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