His standard attire—black hoodie, gray khaki shorts, beat-up New Balances—might be camouflage on the streets below, but in this sea of cufflinks and cocktail dresses he stands out even more than 6-foot-9 Obi Toppin, the New York Knicks power forward who’s mingling with the crowd. It doesn’t take long before Bankman-Fried is mobbed: Can I pitch you something? What do you think about the latest crypto crash? How about a photo for Instagram?
It’s all part of the job for the richest twentysomething in the world. Bankman-Fried’s cryptocurrency exchange, FTX, which enables traders to buy and sell digital assets such as bitcoin and Ethereum, raised $900 million from the likes of Coinbase Ventures and SoftBank in July at an $18 billion valuation. It handles some 10% of the $3.4 trillion face value of derivatives (mostly futures and options) traded by crypto investors each month. FTX pockets 0.02% of each of those trades on average, good for around $750 million in nearly risk-free revenue—and $350 million in profit—over the last 12 months. Separately, his trading firm, Alameda Research, booked $1 billion in profit last year making well-timed trades of its own. Lately Bankman-Fried has been hitting the TV circuit to opine on bitcoin prices, regulations and the future of digital assets.
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