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> In five years, this guy founded a hedge fund that made millions of dollars, a crypto exchange that handles billions of dollars in trades, and became a mega-bi

> In five years, this guy founded a hedge fund that made millions of dollars, a crypto exchange that handles billions of dollars in trades, and became a mega-billionaire...and it came crashing down because he was secretly stealing user funds. That is not what happened. Alameda was a scam tied to the tether fraud from the very start. The entire thing was a con. Alameda was pump and dumping shitcoins before FTX was even created. > In five years, this guy founded a hedge fund that made millions of dollars remains to be seen. May not even be true. Some say his "kimchi trade" story is bullshit. The leaflet where he "sold" Alameda to investors is more than extremely fishy: it looked like a scam planned from the beginning. > a crypto exchange that handles billions of dollars in trades remains to be shown too. A lot was certainly fake volume. For all we know most trades that happened where actually dumping shitcoins they pumped on their users. It's not known where all the supposed users are nor how much was really trader there. It is very likely the volume was in part fake, to sucker investors in. > and became a mega-billionaire he never was that. That was a lie too. If at any time he had billions, that was stolen money and valuation based on lies and tokens he created out of his (now sorry) arse. > and it came crashing down because he was secretly stealing user funds. It came crashing down when it shouldn't have because the dude was bribing officials (it's now proven) to try to regulatory capture a big part of the crypto exchange market by having a legislation passed that would have killed Binance. And CZ from Binance exposed the ponzi SBF was running since day one. The indictment clearly specify that there was a conspiracy to defraud both investors and customers. I don't buy for a second that he was running a legit scheme, that he was legally worth billions (it was all fake valuation) and that someone a few trades went wrong. That's not at all what happened.

maxbond 4y ago
I don't think they're suggesting it was "a few trades gone wrong" but asking if the amount of money SBF was handling corrupted him, which is compatible with your read of the situation. I think it's an interesting question; it goes to the heart of the "earn to give" strategy sometimes espoused by Effective Altruism advocates, and the pitch of "good guy billionaires" like Musk, Gates, or Branson. It's entirely possible SBF was always a piece of work, but that the money enabled him to be his worst self.

maxbond 4y ago

I don't think they're suggesting it was "a few trades gone wrong" but asking if the amount of money SBF was handling corrupted him, which is compatible with your read of the situation. I think it's an interesting question; it goes to the heart of the "earn to give" strategy sometimes espoused by Effective Altruism advocates, and the pitch of "good guy billionaires" like Musk, Gates, or Branson. It's entirely possible SBF was always a piece of work, but that the money enabled him to be his worst self.