Sam Bankman-Fried, 29, Heads Crypto Exchange Worth Billions

ndtv.com:

Sam Bankman-Fried is the co-founder and CEO of cryptocurrency exchange platform FTX

Sam Bankman-Fried donned a suit and tie this week, abandoning his preferred hoodie and dark T-shirt for a hearing before US Senators. 

The lawmakers had summoned the 29-year-old multi-billionaire on Wednesday to discuss the regulation of digital assets in his capacity as co-founder and CEO of the cryptocurrency exchange platform FTX.

Less than three years after its founding, the company was just valued at $32 billion, a capitalization that puts it close to giants Coinbase and Binance. 

The personal fortune of Mr Bankman-Fried, a vegan who sleeps four hours per night and who has become a public face of crypto money, is estimated at nearly $25 billion by Forbes magazine -- placing him among the top 70 richest people on the planet. 

"It's been pretty bipartisan," the young boss told AFP of the hearing. "A lot of Senators are really interested in learning more about the space and learning how there can be more federal oversight." 

From Hong Kong to the Bahamas  

Son of Stanford Law School professors and a graduate of the elite Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Mr Bankman-Fried worked as a broker on Wall Street before turning to cryptocurrencies in 2017. 

He observed large variations in price between the online platforms where people can buy and sell crypto money and took advantage of the gaps by buying and selling digital assets at very high frequency.

The difference in prices in 2018 was 5-25 percent between American and Japanese exchanges, he said, which meant that simply by moving assets from one platform to another he could make money.

"There was enormous demand for crypto coming out of Japan, and not nearly as many liquidity providers,"