Billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried’s sudden fall from crypto “saviour” to rescue recipient has dealt a severe blow to the fragile confidence of the $1tn digital asset market, leaving traders and investors shocked at the speed of the near-collapse of one of its pillars.
FTX and Alameda Research, Bankman-Fried’s crypto exchange and trading firm, were a week ago considered some of the most reliable stars of the crypto market. Bankman-Fried had enhanced his reputation by supporting struggling peers such as lender BlockFi at the height of the summer crypto crisis. That earned him the nickname of a “crypto Pierpont Morgan” — a reference to the banker who stepped in to halt a bank run in 1907.
But on Tuesday the 30-year-old, whose FTX exchange was valued at $32bn at the start of the year, was forced to turn to a rival for a bailout as fears for the financial health of Alameda led to an unsustainable rush of customers demanding their deposits back from the marketplace.