Who is Sam Bankman-Fried, crypto mogul whose net worth plummeted from $16 billion to $1 billion in less than a week

Sam Bankman-Fried, who earned a reputation as a saviour of the crypto industry, saw his assets become essentially worthless, according to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index. This development came after FTX and its affiliates filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy early Friday.

Until this week, the 30-year-old American was seen as a darling in digital assets who amassed billions in personal wealth by running one of the world's largest crypto platforms.

According to a report in Bloomberg, at its peak, Bankman-Fried's net worth was $26 billion and still stood at $16 billion on Monday but by Wednesday it had shriveled to $1 billion. His net worth is now reported to be around $991 million.

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Sam Bankman-Fried Early Life 

Born in 1992, Sam Bankman-Fried grew up in California and as a student attended the Canada/USA Mathcamp, a summer program for mathematically proficient students that also has his future business partner Gary Wang as its alumni.

He later graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) with a degree in physics. He traded currencies, futures, and exchange-traded funds for Jane Street Capital. He later moved to crypto trading and founded Alameda Research in 2017.

Known in financial circles by his initials, SBF, Bankman-Fried had become a prominent and unconventional figure in the industry. He sported his signature wild hair, t-shirts, and shorts on panel appearances with statesmen like former US President Bill Clinton and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, as well as supermodel Gisele Bundchen. 

Bankman-Fried also quickly became one of the largest Democratic donors in the United States, contributing $5.2 million to President Joe Biden's 2020 campaign.

He amassed a fortune, estimated as high as $26.5 billion by Forbes a year ago. Bankman-Fried eventually started the crypto trading firm Alameda Research in 2017 and founded FTX a year later. It was valued in January at $32 billion.

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What went wrong with FTX?

The Bloomberg Billionaires Index put the value of FTX's US business at just $1 by late Thursday. In addition, Bankman-Fried's $500 million in Robinhood stock was stripped from his net worth figure after Reuters reported it was held by Alameda Research, the crypto trading firm he founded, and may have been used as collateral for loans.

"Nobody was saying that anything was wrong with SBF," said Marius Ciubotariu, co-founder of the Hubble protocol, a decentralised lending platform. The company's collapse caught markets by surprise because Bankman-Fried was seen as a business-savvy founder adept at striking deals, he said.

FTX appointed John J Ray III, a restructuring expert, as CEO on Friday. He oversaw the liquidation of Enron, the energy trading giant that collapsed in scandal and bankruptcy in 2001.