How Did FTX End Up at the Met Gala?

Understanding his fashion and high-society fixer, Lauren Remington Platt. 

- MATTHEW SCHNEIER

THEY WERE AN odd pair, Sam Bankman-Fried and Lauren Remington Platt: the philosophical nerd in desperate need of a proper haircut and the coiffed, gown-ready fashion-show fixture whose most recent Instagram on her now-locked feed, from July, is of her embracing and wishing a happy 88th birthday to Giorgio Armani.

In February of this year, SBF tapped LRP to serve as FTX’s head of global luxury partnerships, a job “essential for the  next phase of growth of our team’s partnership and branding focus,” as SBF put it in a press release. Remington Platt couched her contributions-to-be in high-minded platitudes about bringing gender parity to the crypto-bro scene. “Only 7 percent of women are investing in cryptocurrency, and that not only has financial implications but long-term societal effects … To achieve true gender equality, we must invite women to the conversation and provide the tools they need to lay claim to crypto’s ascension.” In any case, LRP showed up on the red carpet at the Met Gala wearing a necklace inspired by the company’s logo.