Sam Bankman-Fried IQ: How brilliant is Sam Bankman-Fried?

Samuel Bankman-Fried (born March 6, 1992), also known by his initials SBF, is an American entrepreneur, investor, and the founder and former CEO of the cryptocurrency exchanges FTX, FTX.US, and Alameda Research.

In late 2022, FTX experienced a crisis, which resulted in the collapse of FTX’s native cryptocurrency, FTT. In the midst of the crisis, Bankman-Fried announced the closure of Alameda Research and resigned as CEO of FTX, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The net worth of Bankman-Fried peaked at $26 billion. He was estimated to have a net worth of $10.5 billion in October 2022. However, his net worth was estimated to have dropped 94% in a day to $991.5 million on November 8, 2022, amid FTX’s solvency crisis, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, the largest one-day drop in the index’s history. The Bloomberg Billionaires Index determined that Bankman-Fried had no material wealth as of November 11, 2022.

Bankman-Fried was a major donor to Democratic Party candidates before his wealth vanished in November 2022. He was the second-largest individual donor to Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election, personally donating $5.2 million, and he donated $40 million during the 2022 U.S. midterm elections, mostly to Democratic candidates.

Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao announced on Twitter in November 2022 that his company planned to sell its holdings of FTT, FTX’s token. Binance received FTT as part of a 2021 equity sale in FTX. Zhao’s tweet came shortly after CoinDesk reported that the majority of Alameda, Bankman-quantitative Fried’s trading firm, held FTT. According to Bloomberg and TechCrunch, any sale by Binance would have a disproportionate impact on FTT’s price due to the token’s low trading volume. The announcement of the pending sale by Zhao, as well as disagreements between Zhao and Bankman-Fried on Twitter, caused the price of FTT and other cryptocurrencies to fall. Zhao had recently criticized Bankman-lobbying Fried’s efforts.