Sam Bankman-Fried, the former CEO of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX was sentenced to 25 years in prison after being convicted of fraud for stealing at least $10 billion from customers and investors
Sam Bankman-Fried went from cryptocurrency golden boy to the face of the industry’s collapse. The founder and former CEO of the massive cryptocurrency exchange FTX was sentenced to 25 years in prison Thursday after being convicted of fraud for stealing at least $10 billion from customers and investors. The collapse of one of the largest crypto exchanges in the world shook the digital currency world and sent prices plunging.
Here is a timeline of how it happened.
2022
Nov. 2: Coindesk reports Alameda Reseach, Bankman-Fried’s cryptocurrency trading firm, holds a large amount of FTT, a token issued by FTX, suggesting the finances of the two are intertwined and Alameda faces a cash crunch. The report spooks participants in the crypto market.
Nov. 6: Rival cryptocurrency exchange Binance announces that the firm plans to sell all its holdings in FTT. The price of FTT tanks.
Nov. 8: Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao said his company had signed a letter of intent to buy FTX because the smaller exchange was experiencing a “significant liquidity crunch.” That deal would be contingent, however, on a look at the books at FTX. The price for bitcoin tumbles 13%.
