This Is FTX Owner Sam Bankman-Fried: Decoding His Donations, Early Life, And More

FTX Owner Sam Bankman- Fried is a famous personality in the crypto sector today. The 30-year-old billionaire is an MIT alumnus who graduated in Physics. Before founding FTX, Sam was a trader on Jane Street Capital’s International ETF desk. Sam even designed their automated trading system. He traded on a range of ETFs futures and currencies. According to Forbes, Sam Bankman Fried’s real-time net worth is $26 Billion. Sam is among the billionaires who emerged out of the crypto boom.

Sam Bankman-Fried Personal Life

Bankman-Fried was born to two Stanford Law School professors, Barbara Fried and Joseph Bankman, in 1992. Even though he was brought up in a household run by educators, he once made a statement: “I have a lot of pedagogical disagreements with how a school is run.”

According to a source, when Bankman-Fried was in seventh-eight grade, he told his mom he found his school so boring that he was “gonna die.” His parents then pushed him to attend a Math Campus. It was Canada/USA Mathcamp, a summer program for mathematically talented high school students. This sharpened his problem-solving and managerial skills.

Not a lot is known about his personal life. The FTX owner likes to keep things private. The Instagram account of the FTX owner just has two pictures. However, his Twitter handle is full of updates regarding FTX and his other ventures.

FTX Exchange

Founded by Sam Bankman-Fried in 2019, FTX is a centralized crypto exchange. It offers a range of trading products including derivatives, leveraged tokens, volatility products, MOVE, and options. In addition, it provides Spot markets in over 100 cryptocurrency trading pairs such as BTC/USDT, ETH/ USDT, and XRP/USDT. FTX doesn’t charge deposits on fees withdrawal for most cryptocurrencies.

FTX is now headquartered in the Bahamas, after being shifted from Hong Kong in late 2021. The SEC commission of the Bahamas regulates FTX US. Meanwhile, U.S residents can only trade through FTX U.S. FTX US and FTX have overlapping management teams but separate capital infrastructures. The exchange and its U.S operators hit a combined 40 billion valuation in January 2022.

FTX is popular among traders due to its easy-to-use desktops and mobile trading apps. FTX has a user interface that attracts beginners to pro traders. The founders call it an exchange from traders to traders.

Gary Wang is another co-founder of FTX exchange. He earlier worked as a software engineer at Google. He also has graduated from MIT in Math and Computer Science.

Analyzing Benthamite’s Generous Donations To Political Causes

Sam calls himself a Benthamite. Benthamite refers to someone who believes in English philosophy and social reformer Jeremy Bentham’s classical work for Utilitarianism. Utilitarianism is a concept that says “making the world the best place we can.”

Utilitarianism is what inspired the FTX owner to desert 99% of his earnings. Sam is the practitioner of ‘effective altruism.’ Effective altruism is laid on the foundation of Utilitarianism. Young wealthy billionaires are mostly part of this movement. They are also known as Rational Gooders.‘Earning to give is their motto. It means pursuing a high-paying career to earn significantly to donate significantly and hence achieve a maximum impact.

Bankman-Fried is an EA who is famous for his political donations. As per the FEC records, Bankman-Fried has donated more than $21 million of his money to a variety of Democratic candidates and Democratic-aligned PACs. Moreover, he has stated that he plans to donate over $100 million and up to $1 billion to political causes

Bankman-Fried has also funded entities that constitute the Democratic establishment. The FTX owner donated $6 million to the House Majority PAC, $500,000 to the leadership-aligned Senate Majority PAC, and $36,600 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

Critics have pointed out that providing funds to the House Majority PAC enabling the purchase of more TV ads isn’t quite a noble pursuit. They call it a ‘standard megadonor behavior,’ highlighting the fact that big gifts constitute the funding of these PACs. It is even said that Bankman-Fried does not believe in crypto at all. He just saw a money-making opportunity in the crypto space.

The left wasn’t impressed by the FTX owner’s entry into politics. The reason as per popular assumption is that many progressives are still skeptical about the cryptocurrency industry. Bankman-Fried, meanwhile, have become a billionaire through crypto. Daniel Strauss, a staff writer at the New Republic, pointed out that it is highly likely that “many progressives will see crypto donors as nefarious shills from the wrong part of the Democratic Party.”

Some critics claim that Bankman-Fried drives on self-interest. The reason he backs crypto-friendly Democrats is to convince them to be light on the still-emerging industry. Sam Bankman-Fried genuinely cares about pandemic prevention, and thus his donation to Protect Our Future. Since POF is focussed on pandemic prevention. Pandemic-prevention and electing Democrats could be his priority due to two reasons. He either actually believes they could prove to be a great fighter or because he doesn’t like Republicans for the usual reasons.

There is no denying that the FTX owner has certain priorities. Contributing to make the U.S government more friendly to crypto assets seems to be one of them. His support of Vote Tripling PAC and Future Forward PAC are evidence.

Sam Bankman Fried Stay Adamant On Helping Voyager

The FTX owner is also the founder and owner of Alameda Research. A leading principal trading firm, Alameda Research was one of the largest creditors on Voyager’s bankruptcy filing. Voyager has filed for the Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Witnessing this Sam Bankman-Fried tweeted on July 22, “Happy to do what we can to get liquidity to Voyager’s customers.” The FTX owner said he wants Voyager’s customers to get liquidity in a better way. Acting on his savior reputation, Bankman-Fried pointed out that investors did not choose to hold unsecured claims.

But, Voyager Digital has denied the FTX owner’s $250 million credit offer. Despite that he stays adamant to helping the firm, he says he wants to give the firm a direct option and they want to “go through the longer bankruptcy process.” FTX CEO said however the final decision is in the hands of shareholders.

Nonetheless, going forward, it would be interesting to see the future ventures of the young entrepreneur.

Andrew is a blockchain developer who developed his interest in cryptocurrencies while his post-graduation. He is a keen observer of details and shares his passion for writing along with being a developer. His backend knowledge about blockchain helps him give a unique perspective to his writing