Sam Bankman-Fried – pressnews

Effective Altruism Has a Sam Altman Problem

30Dec

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Technology

Effective Altruism Has a Sam Altman Problem

[ad_1] At a New York City dive bar on a recent December night, Pitbull blared from the sound system, and a gathering of like-minded young people had passionate debates about morals and the future of humanity. The local community of effective altruists was holding its “end of year celebration.”It seemed like EAs had little to celebrate. Because for the second time in as many years, a guy named Sam was the subject of an extraordinary tech story and an apparent indictment of the EA philosophy. This time it wasn't crypto criminal Sam Bankman-Fried, but the artificial intelligence industry's superstar, Sam Altman. It's been quite the ride for those calling themselves effective altruists, an embodiment of a philosophy that morphed from doing good, into how to make as much money as possible t...

Crypto markets: Bitcoin’s 160 pct Rebound in 2023 Is a Gamble on ETF ‘Demand Shock’

24Dec

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Crypto markets: Bitcoin’s 160 pct Rebound in 2023 Is a Gamble on ETF ‘Demand Shock’

[ad_1] The sense of doom that gripped crypto markets at the end of 2022 following a $1.5 trillion wipeout has 12 months later given way to a very different sentiment: avarice. Bitcoin stormed back with a more than 160% advance this year that added some $530 billion to its market capitalization. In its wake, myriad smaller tokens ranging from Sam Bankman-Fried-backed Solana to dog- and frog-themed memecoins took off as investors embraced risk again. An investor who bought $100,000 of Solana at the start of 2023 would now be sitting on a more than $800,000 gain. Underpinning much of the bonanza is optimism that US regulators will soon give their first blessing for an exchange-traded fund that invests directly in Bitcoin. Investors will find out by Jan. 10 if that bet, which crypto bulls ...

One year after FTX imploded, here’s how crypto is changing

12Nov

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One year after FTX imploded, here’s how crypto is changing

[ad_1] For many who trade cryptocurrencies for a living, the events of a year ago are forever etched in memory. “The worst day of my career, and one of the worst days of my life — the day FTX froze withdrawals,” is how Travis Kling, who runs Ikigai Asset Management, described it in a series of tweets on Nov. 7. Four days later, Sam Bankman-Fried's exchange filed for bankruptcy, ushering in arguably the darkest days in crypto's history. “The first weeks were incredibly brutal. I didn't sleep much at all. Feelings of terror, guilt and shame. We laid off most of the team,” Kling wrote. A year on, the industry is irrevocably altered — while at the same time in many ways remarkably familiar. Mostly gone are the giddy day traders and the abundant leverage that drove Bitcoin to its November...

Crypto Token Tied to Sam Bankman-Fried Is Now the Year’s Best Performer

3Nov

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Crypto Token Tied to Sam Bankman-Fried Is Now the Year’s Best Performer

[ad_1] Almost a year after the demise of Sam Bankman-Fried's crypto empire, one of the blockchain projects most associated with the now disgraced entrepreneur is emerging from under the cloud his downfall cast over the digital-asset world. Solana's SOL token has surged about 340% to $41 in 2023, outdoing the 114% rally in market bellwether Bitcoin and becoming the best performing token among the largest cryptocurrencies tracked by Bloomberg. That follows a 94% drop last year as Bankman-Fried's FTX and Alameda Research — two major backers of the project - collapsed into bankruptcy. We are now on WhatsApp. Click to join. The token has doubled over the last 30-days amid the launch of a software solution dubbed Firedancer and the broader rally in the crypto market. Testing of the Firedance...

FTX origins, mistakes made, ‘Freakoutness’: SBF on the stand

30Oct

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FTX origins, mistakes made, ‘Freakoutness’: SBF on the stand

[ad_1] FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried returns to the stand Monday, when he's likely to face a bruising cross-examination based on his Friday testimony that he made mistakes but didn't commit fraud that led to the cryptocurrency exchange's collapse.Bankman-Fried was questioned by his own lawyer on Friday, and he used his time on the stand to offer alternative explanations for actions prosecutors have described as nefarious. The case against Bankman-Fried centers on allegedly fraudulent transfers of billions in FTX customer funds to an affiliated hedge fund, Alameda Research, in which he held a 90% interest. We are now on WhatsApp. Click to join. The onetime crypto mogul also tried to push back on the prosecution testimony of three former close associates — FTX co-founder Gary Wang, eng...

Crypto Memes Kick Back Into High Gear After Bitcoin ETF Frenzy

30Oct

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Crypto Memes Kick Back Into High Gear After Bitcoin ETF Frenzy

[ad_1] If there's one thing that crypto enthusiasts love more than the digital assets themselves, it's memes. A frenzy of crypto-based memes have gained fresh momentum last week as Bitcoin rallied.Growing expectations that the US Securities and Exchange Commission will authorize exchange-traded funds that invest directly in Bitcoin pushed the largest crypto by market value up by more than 25% over the past two weeks to around $35,000 on Wednesday — its highest level in about 18 months. The breakout gives bulls some hope even as reminders of the industry's recent woes linger. Just last week, Sam Bankman-Fried took the stand in his own defense of criminal charges stemming from the collapse of his crypto exchange FTX. He has pleaded not guilty. We are now on WhatsApp. Click to join. Memeco...

Sam Bankman-Fried takes stand, says he made ‘small mistakes’

28Oct

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Sam Bankman-Fried takes stand, says he made ‘small mistakes’

[ad_1] Sam Bankman-Fried, founder of the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX, took the stand at his trial on Friday and said that while he may have made mistakes he did not commit fraud or steal from customers. "I made a number of small mistakes and a number of large mistakes," the onetime crypto wunderkind said in reply to a question from one of his lawyers, Mark Cohen. "By far the biggest mistake was that we didn't have a team dedicated to risk management," Bankman-Fried said. We are now on WhatsApp. Click to join. His high-stakes decision to testify on his own behalf, which opens him up to cross-examination, came after three weeks of devastating testimony against the 31-year-old accused of stealing billions of dollars from clients. Bankman-Fried, who was wearing a grey suit and t...

Group chats, tweets and audio tape: The evidence against FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried

15Oct

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Group chats, tweets and audio tape: The evidence against FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried

[ad_1] Sam Bankman-Fried's words in tweets and group chats are being used as evidence against him in his historic fraud trial. Screenshots of messages, social media posts and internal documents have been presented by prosecutors to demonstrate how the 31-year-old allegedly orchestrated a multibillion-dollar scheme at his FTX cryptocurrency exchange, along with his trading firm Alameda Research. The documents offer a look into the mechanics of his alleged fraud as well as the discrepancies between his public statements and private instructions to his inner circle.Former colleagues — including Caroline Ellison and Gary Wang — gave jurors insight on how to decipher the documents during their testimony at the federal courthouse in New York. Prosecutors also played audio clips from a secretl...

Sam Bankman-Fried, the fallen wunderkind of cryptocurrency

29Sep

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Sam Bankman-Fried, the fallen wunderkind of cryptocurrency

[ad_1] He was the face of cryptocurrency, and a young one at that -- a media darling seemingly destined to unite the sector.But Sam Bankman-Fried's stunning rise to prominence and wealth would be matched by his spectacular fall, and with it that of his platform FTX. In the space of just a few months, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate with a degree in physics had taken a startup he founded in 2019 and built it up into the world's second-largest crypto exchange platform. He quickly became more than just a young entrepreneur, fashioning himself as an ambassador of crypto and making his first appearance in Congress in December 2021, testifying before lawmakers on the then-novel form of currency.The public would come to know a seemingly oddball whiz kid with a mop of curly ...

Sam Bankman-Fried must be jailed, is intimidating witnesses, prosecutors say

30Jul

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Sam Bankman-Fried must be jailed, is intimidating witnesses, prosecutors say

[ad_1] Sam Bankman-Fried must be jailed pending his October fraud trial over the collapse of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange he founded because he is trying to intimidate witnesses and influence their testimony, prosecutors said on Friday.Bankman-Fried, a former billionaire, has lived mainly under house arrest at his parents' Palo Alto, California, home since his December 2022 extradition from the Bahamas. His bail, which includes a $250 million bond, became an issue after the New York Times on July 20 published an article containing excerpts from his former romantic partner Caroline Ellison's personal Google documents prior to FTX's collapse. Bankman-Fried, 31, acknowledged sharing the documents with a Times reporter. The U.S. Attorney's office in Manhattan said that crossed the line, ...