Celebrated non-fiction chronicler Michael Lewis is writing a guide about cryptocurrency tycoon Sam Bankman-Fried, whose enterprise imploded in spectacular style on Friday, forcing it to declare chapter.
As much as $2 billion in shopper funds had vanished from the corporate’s books in current weeks. The disgraced CEO and members of his internal circle at the moment are underneath commentary by authorities and are stated to be holed up within the Bahamas.
Lewis, 62, has spent the previous six months shadowing 30-year-old Bankman-Fried, touring with him and interviewing him extensively, it emerged on Friday.
His earlier books The Huge Brief, Moneyball and The Blind Facet become Hollywood blockbusters.
The Ankler first reported that literary agent Michael Snyder knowledgeable his contacts that Lewis had six months’ price of fabric on Bankman-Fried – who feuded in spectacular fashion with Binance founder and CEO Changpeng Zhao.
Zhao, head of the world’s largest bitcoin and crypto change, stated final week he supposed to rescue FTX, Bankman-Fried’s firm, however then backed out, saying FTX was not secure.
Lewis likened the pair to Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader.
‘Michael hasn’t written something but, however the story has grow to be too large for us to attend,’ the agent stated in his e mail, obtained by The Ankler.
Michael Lewis, writer of The Huge Brief, Moneyball and The Blind Facet, has for the final six months been interviewing Sam Bankman-Fried
FTX founder and CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (left) and Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (proper) have been likened by Lewis to Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader
Snyder continued: ‘His childhood, early success on Wall Road, embrace of efficient altruism and the creation of a crypto empire that catapulted him in document time into the ranks of the richest individuals on the earth appeared greater than enough for a signature Michael Lewis guide.
SBF: Hoodie-wearing vegan son of Stanford Regulation professors who sleeps 4 hours an evening
Sam Bankman-Fried, a vegan who sleeps 4 hours an evening, had grow to be a public face of cryptocurrency, with a private fortune as soon as estimated at almost $25 billion.
The success of FTX allowed the platform to forge prestigious partnerships, notably with American soccer legend Tom Brady and former supermodel Gisele Bundchen, and it featured comic Larry David in a Tremendous Bowl tv commercial.
Virtually all the time showing with a hoodie and a darkish T-shirt, Bankman-Fried has pledged to donate virtually all of his fortune to his favored causes, like animal welfare and the combat towards international warming.
The son of Stanford Regulation College professors and a graduate of the elite Massachusetts Institute of Know-how (MIT), he was born on the Stanford campus and raised in California.
Sam Bankman-Fried, 30
He labored as a dealer on Wall Road earlier than turning to cryptocurrencies in 2017.
Bankman-Fried moved the corporate to the Bahamas, the place taxes are virtually nonexistent, saying the Caribbean nation is ‘one of many few international locations that has a complete licensing regime for cryptocurrencies and cryptocurrency exchanges.’
He has been a vocal advocate for smoother entry to the crypto marketplace for most of the people, significantly in the USA.
‘In fact, the occasions of the previous week have offered a dramatic shock ending to the story.’
In August, Lewis mentioned in broad phrases his new guide in an interview with Monetary Information.
‘I actually do not wish to reveal precisely what I am writing about,’ he stated.
‘However I discovered a personality via whom I can write about — it weirdly hyperlinks up Flash Boys, The Huge Brief and Liar’s Poker.
‘I assume it’s attainable will probably be framed as a crypto guide, but it surely will not be a crypto guide.
‘It’s going to be about this actually uncommon character. You may study all about crypto and you will study what screwed up market construction in the USA and so forth.’
FTX had a one-time valuation of $32 billion and substantial ties to the leisure business.
Adverts starring Tom Brady and Gisele Bundchen, in addition to Larry David, have been broadly promoted, and Steph Curry and Naomi Osaka have been paid endorsers.
Bankman-Fried acquired quite a few plaudits as he quickly achieved celebrity standing as probably the world’s first trillionaire.
Born in Stanford, California, he had based FTX in 2019, and it grew quickly – it was lately valued at $32 billion.
The son of Stanford College professors, who was recognized to play the online game ‘League of Legends’ throughout conferences, Bankman-Fried attracted investments from the very best echelons of Silicon Valley.
Up till final week, Bankman-Fried was seen as a white knight for the business.
Each time the crypto business had certainly one of its crises, Bankman-Fried was the individual more likely to fly in with a rescue plan.
When on-line buying and selling platform Robinhood was in monetary straits earlier this yr – collateral harm from the decline in inventory and crypto costs – Bankman-Fried jumped in to purchase a stake within the firm as an indication of assist.
When Bankman-Fried purchased up the belongings of bankrupt crypto agency Voyager Digital for $1.4 billion this summer time, it introduced a way of reduction to Voyager account holders, whose belongings have been frozen since its personal failure. That rescue is now in query.
As king of crypto, his affect was beginning to pour into political and well-liked tradition.
FTX purchased distinguished sports activities sponsorships with Formulation Racing and the naming rights to an enviornment in Miami.
Bankman-Fried is seen in December testifying to the Home Monetary Providers Committee listening to titled Digital Property and the Way forward for Finance: Understanding the Challenges and Advantages of Monetary Innovation in the USA
He pledged to donate $1 billion towards Democrats this election cycle – his precise donations have been within the tens of tens of millions – and distinguished politicians like Invoice Clinton have been invited to talk at FTX conferences.
Sequoia Capital, which invested in Apple, Cisco, Google, Airbnb and YouTube, described their assembly with Bankman-Fried as probably ‘speaking to the world’s first trillionaire.’
Sequoia enthusiastically invested in FTX after one Zoom assembly in 2021.
‘I do not know the way I do know, I simply do. SBF is a winner,’ Sequoia Capital’s Adam Fisher, wrote in a profile of Bankman-Fried for the agency, referring to Bankman-Fried by his well-liked on-line moniker.
The article, printed in late September, was faraway from Sequoia’s web site.
Sequoia has written down its $213 million in investments to zero.
A pension fund in Ontario, Canada wrote down its funding to zero as effectively.
In a terse assertion, the Ontario Lecturers´ Pension Fund stated, ‘Naturally, not all the investments on this early-stage asset class carry out to expectations.’
Bankman-Fried had been the topic of some criticism earlier than FTX collapsed.
Elon Musk additionally shared a crude meme that depicted Bankman-Fried because the star of a pornographic movie titled ‘Man F***s 5 Million Individuals At As soon as’
Whereas he largely operated FTX out of U.S. jurisdiction from his headquarters in The Bahamas, Bankman-Fried was more and more vocal in regards to the want for extra regulation of the cryptocurrency business.
Many supporters of crypto oppose authorities oversight.
Now, FTX’s collapse might have helped make the case for stricter regulation.
A type of critics was Binance founder and CEO Changpeng Zhao.
The feud between the 2 billionaires spilled out onto Twitter, the place Zhao and Bankman-Fried collectively commanded tens of millions of followers.
Zhao helped kickstart the withdrawals that doomed FTX when he stated Binance would promote its holdings in FTX’s crypto token FTT.