Fortune And Unrealistic Ideas Bring FTX Crypto Empire Downfall To Life In Documentary

In a match made by WME, Fortune and Unrealistic Ideas plan to collaborate on a documentary that seeks to find the truth behind the massive fallout of crypto empire, FTX. In an exclusive story from The Hollywood Reporter, the documentary is described as “a personal examination of the relationship between FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) and Binance founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao” whose starkly different upbringings perfectly juxtapose the kind of characters made for the big screen. SBF, who had the confidence and connected privilege often associated with an Ivy League upbringing like his, created quite the esoteric business relationship with CZ, who at 12, fled to Canada from China, going on to take odd jobs including one at McDonald’s to help keep his family afloat, an often familial obligation many East Asian immigrant children are raised with.

Born out of cryptocurrency’s rapid mainstream adoption, both Binance and FTX did not exist just five years ago despite their perpetual visibility in the current news cycle. Launched in July 2017 by CZ, Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, became an early corporate investor in the emerging and competitive Bahamas-based exchange, FTX, which launched in May 2019.

By January 2022, FTX’s valuation had grown to $32 billion as SBF’s slick persona of credibility garnered a host of celebrity endorsements and attracted interest from lawmakers and investors. In less than one year, in November 2022, FTX was on the brink of collapse after facing a serious liquidity crunch and in a non-binding agreement, Binance announced they would bail out FTX. Two hours into the due dilligence process, Binance pulled out of the deal stating in a tweet “the issues are beyond our control or ability to help.” Two days later, FTX began filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and the next day, $1 billion in customer funds went missing from FTX.

“We immediately knew what we were reporting on was unusual to say the least and a saga that had not quite been seen before,” says Fortune editor-in-chief, Alyson Shontell. “The characters and the narrative of it, it’s better than fiction – between the connection of CZ and SBF from FTX’s inception on through his cryptic tweet before selling off a ton of FTT which created conditions for the selloff and his biggest rival exchange in Sam and FTX – you just really can’t make that stuff up.”

Fortune recently brought back their now-crypto editor, Jeff John Roberts, who was previously executive editor at Decrypt, expertly reporting on the space. “We felt like no matter what was going on in the world of crypto, blockchain technology is transformative of the bigger world of business and we wanted to be there covering,” says Shontell. With a deep source network and direct inroads to SBF and CZ who were both on the magazine’s cover, Fortune’s perspective on the financial details of the story add validity and cache to the project.

Unrealistic Ideas, the non-scripted production company behind Emmy-nominated McMillions on HBO was launched in 2018 by Mark Wahlberg, Stephen Levinson and Archie Gips. With journalistic integrity and command of the subject matter, Fortune was paired with the Unrealistic Ideas team – a group who equally command the film production and storytelling world intersection in late 2022, right as FTX began to unravel. “Our company is in the business of entertaining people and informing them,” says Gips, President of Unrealistic Ideas. “These documentaries have to be highly entertaining to really make an impact – people are only as interested as the people that are telling the story.”

Still deep in the planning process, there is no hard timeline for the documentary although the team is eager to move quick. Funding for the project is still underway with the potential to go one of two ways – financed independently or directly through streaming buyers. Several potential directors have reached out to Unrealistic Ideas excited about the possibility of working on the film. “We have not only CZ confirmed, we also have other high level execs at both Binance and FTX and major players in the crypto world with at least 8-10 total people who are guaranteeing us exclusivity,” adds Gips.

Who is this story for? As crypto went mainstream so quickly, the entry point for the once mystical world of digital assets feels like it has a much more transparent veil than it did just five years ago before Binance and FTX were around. “Human interest stories are a really important way into the increasingly complicated world of business – it can make the most daunting business topics approachable and understandable,” says Shontell. “My biggest concern is getting the truth. We know there are a lot of opinions, we know there are a lot of sides, I just want to get to the bottom of it”. An unbothered Gips notes, “I am not as worried about the truth, it always rises to the top.”

The film will be executive produced by Alyson Shontell and Jeff John Roberts of Fortune along with Mark Wahlberg, Stephen Levinson, Archie Gips and technology executive, John Weston.