F.T.X. Cryptocurrency Collapse Page at Spirit of America Bookstore

"What's lighter than the mind? A thought. Than thought? This bubble world. What, than this bubble? Naught."
— Francis Quarles [1599-1644], in 1635 {during the Dutch Tulip Mania Crisis)

"CRYPTOCURRENCIES ARE VERY SPECULATIVE INVESTMENTS AND INVOLVE A HIGH DEGREE OF RISK.
INVESTORS MUST HAVE THE FINANCIAL ABILITY, SOPHISTICATION/EXPERIENCE, AND WILLINGNESS
TO BEAR THE RISKS OF AN INVESTMENT, AND A POTENTIAL TOTAL LOSS OF THEIR INVESTMENT."

Days after They worked together at the finance firm Jane Street, where they bonded over 'effective altruism', a trendy Silicon Valley philosophy about accumulating wealth in order to give back and help humanity (now seen as a front by some). SBF left to start Alameda Research and later asked Ellison to join him at the then-startup. At times, Ellison and SBF were romantically involved, and that’s not all they shared: SBF has tweeted about stimulant use at Alameda and F.T.X., and Ellison tweeted in 2021, “Nothing like regular amphetamine use to make you appreciate how dumb a lot of normal, non-medicated human experience is.”

Origins

The Crash of 2 0 2 2

2022 Sat Jan 22:

The price of bitcoin fell from its November highs of nearly $70,000 to now around $35,000; Bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market value, fell around 9 percent in just 24 hours; since the start of the year, it has fallen around 23 percent. Meanwhile, Ethereum, the second largest cryptocurrency, fared even worse, dropping around 15 percent over 24 hours and roughly 35 percent since the new year. The sell-off accelerated a two-month slide in the global cryptocurrency market that has vaporized $1.4 trillion in value: after reaching a high of roughly $3 trillion in early November, the total value of digital assets sat just above $1.6 trillion early Saturday afternoon.

2022 Tue May 10:

Bitcoin fell below $30,000 for the first time since mid-2021 before rebounding by as much as 5.4 percent to $31,904; the world's biggest cryptocurrency has been falling since a rally peak in November; Bitcoin is now down nearly 55 percent from its November high, and 40 percent of people who have invested in the digital currency are now underwater.

2022 June: Events are being labeled 'The Crypto Winter'.

2022 Tuesday June 14:

Bitcoin prices dropped below $21,000 before rebounding modestly as a cryptocurrency selloff intensified. Just after 5am ET the world's largest cryptocurrency was trading at $22,531.22, down 7 percent; global cryptocurrency market capitalization fell below $1 trillion on Monday for the first time since 2021 after the market lost $200 billion since Saturday.

2022 June: In the last two weeks, Sam Bankman-Fried, the billionaire CEO of F.T.X., has provided a $250 million revolving line of credit to lending platform BlockFi and a $200 million credit line of cash and stablecoins (plus other goodies) to Voyager Digital, an exchange whose stock has plunged ~90% this year.

2022 June:

Bitcoin fell below $17,000.

2022 November: Nonfiction superstar author Michael Lewis, who is famous for writing "The Big Short" and "Moneyball", has reportedly been embedded with the bankrupt crypto exchange’s former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried for six months and will pen a book telling the inside story; news of Lewis’s next book was revealed by a C.A.A. agent in an email to potential buyers of the movie rights; according to the email, the author plans to focus on the rivalry between S.B.F. and Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, suggesting that they are 'the Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader of crypto'.

2022 Wed Nov 9: Crypto exchange Binance's decision to drop plans to acquire rival F.T.X. also dragged down tech stocks, and sent Bitcoin's price to a two-year low. Popular F.T.X. CEO Sam Bankman-Fried lost 94% of his wealth in a single day, and Bloomberg said that the 30-year-old crypto entrepreneur may find himself removed from their billionaires list within days.

2022 Fri Nov 11: F.T.X. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and CEO Sam Bankman-Fried resigned; John J. Ray III was appointed F.T.X.’s new CEO.

2022 Mon Nov 14: The F.T.X. crypto exchange's collapse and bankruptcy caused further damage: Bitcoin dropped to $16,500 and is now down 65 percent in 2022; analysts say that it could drop below $10,000. Ether has fallen more than 20 percent this year and was trading around $1,230. F.T.X. said over the weekend that it was investigating a potential hack after more than $370 million worth of crypto funds cannot be found.

2022 mid-November: The F.T.X. crypto exchange implosion sent shock waves through the industry; cryptocurrency Bitcoin plummeted to a two-year low of $15,480, substantially down from its peak of just under $69,000 in November 2021.

2022 Thu Nov 17: Veteran bankruptcy pro John J. Ray III, the newly appointed CEO of F.T.X., said that the collapsed crypto exchange was the worst corporate failure he’s ever witnessed. (And he oversaw the liquidation of Enron Corp. [1985-2006].)

2022 early December: After the meteor-killing-the-dinosaurs level collapse of crypto exchange F.T.X., a number of celebrities who had acted as ambassadors for the company were named as defendants in class-action suits in Florida state court and elsewhere; comedian & "Seinfeld" creator Larry David, Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady and his ex-wife model Gisele Bundchen, baseball Hall of Famer David Ortiz, Shark Tank’s Kevin O’Leary, and basketball stars Shaquille O’Neal & Stephen Curry were among those named in the suits.

2022 Mon Dec 12: Royal Bahamas Police Force arrested former F.T.X. CEO Sam Bankman-Fried at his apartment complex in Nassau, Bahamas at the request of the U.S. Government; S.B.F. will appear in Bahamian court Tuesday. The New York Times reported that the charges against S.B.F. included wire fraud, wire fraud conspiracy, securities fraud, securities fraud conspiracy and money laundering; S.B.F. has denied accusations that he defrauded F.T.X.'s customers.

2022 Tue Dec 13: The House Financial Services Committee held a hearing on the collapse of F.T.X. without Sam Bankman-Fried because he was in custody in the Bahamas; Cong. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez [Dem; NY-14] interrogated acting F.T.X. CEO John J. Ray III, who scapegoated the company's founder for all of its criminal conduct, describing the brazen crypto scam as 'plain, old fashion embezzlement' carried out by 'a small group of grossly inexperienced and unsophisticated individuals'.

2022 Tue Dec 13: The Securities and Exchange Commission unveiled a civil complaint against Sam Bankman-Fried and F.T.X. calling the company 'a house of cards [built] on a foundation of deception'.

2022 Sun Dec 18: New York prosecutors accepted a plea deal with Caroline Ellison, the 28-year-old former CEO of Alameda Research, and Gary Wang, who co-founded F.T.X. with Sam Bankman-Fried, on wire, securities, and commodities fraud charges 'related to their roles in the fraud that contributed to F.T.X.'s collapse'. Ellison attempted to minimize her punishment in exchange for her full cooperation with S.B.F.’s prosecutors. Ellison admitted that she and S.B.F. worked together to mislead F.T.X. lenders about how much Alameda Research was borrowing from the exchange, per unsealed court transcripts; she also said that she’s sorry. The estimated amount that now-bankrupt F.T.X. owes to creditors is $8 billion, while it loaned as much as $10 billion to Alameda, per the New York Times.

2022 Mon Dec 19: Insurers have started withholding coverage from cryptocurrency companies with exposure to bankrupt crypto exchange F.T.X. Specialists in the Lloyd's of London and Bermuda insurance markets are demanding more transparency about crypto firms' ties to F.T.X.; the insurers' efforts to protect themselves from fallout from F.T.X.'s implosion is leaving digital currency traders and exchanges without insurance for losses from hacks, theft, and lawsuits. The lack of cryptocurrency market regulation, along with the volatility of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, is adding to insurers' longstanding reluctance to issue policies protecting crypto assets, and directors & officers of crypto firms.

2022 Wed Dec 21: Bahamian authorities handed F.T.X. founder Sam Bankman-Fried over to U.S. authorities to face charges related to the collapse of the cryptocurrency platform; S.B.F. is accused of diverting money from F.T.X. to cover losses at his hedge fund, Alameda Research.

2022 Thu Dec 22: Following his extradition from the Bahamas, F.T.X. crypto conman Sam Bankman-Fried appeared in a federal courtroom in Manhattan to answer the charges against him: two counts of wire fraud and six counts of conspiracy; the judge released him on $250 million bail, secured by his parents' home in Palo Alto, California, where he will be confined with an ankle monitor through his trial.

2022 Fri Dec 23: Reuters reported that F.T.X. recruited dozens of Nigerian students, desperate for jobs of any kind, to promote cryptocurrency to their peers; some got paid on commission, others worked for free. Now the F.T.X. marketers are subject to arrest and threats of violence from people that they lured into Bankman-Fried's Ponzi scheme, which one of the Nigerian student workers calls 'a very well-planned robbery'.

the year 2 0 2 3

The cryptocurrency trading industry is still reeling from the November collapse of F.T.X., once the world's second biggest crypto exchange.

2023 Tue Jan 3: Federal prosecutors in Manhattan unsealed the indictment charging S.B.F. with eight criminal counts including wire fraud, money laundering, and violating campaign finance laws. U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan set bail for S.B.F. at $250 million (secured by his parents' home) and ordered him to wear an ankle monitor and stay at his parents' home in Palo Alto, California. The trial date was set for October 2nd.

2023 Tue Jan 3: Former F.T.X. CEO S.B.F. pled not guilty to eight criminal counts including wire fraud, money laundering, and violating campaign finance laws.

2023 Jan ??: The federal government revealed in a new court filing that it has seized more than $600 million in assets from Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of collapsed crypto exchange F.T.X.; according to prosecutors, the seizures included a wide swath of cash in various banks, as well as millions of shares from the financial services company Robinhood. The most recent acquisition came this past week, when the government seized more than $94 million that S.B.F. held in a single bank.

2023 Thu Jan 5: Cryptocurrency lender Genesis said that it was laying off 30 percent of its workers; the layoffs left the company with 145 employees. The company also was considering filing for bankruptcy protection after suffering big losses from loans to now-defunct trading firm Alameda Research and crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital, both of which filed for bankruptcy last year.

2023 Thu Jan 5: After crypto-focused bank Silvergate Capital revealed damage to its finances by the F.T.X. implosion, it suffered $8.1 billion in customer withdrawals requiring the bank to sell assets at huge losses to meet those obligations.

2023 Fri Jan 27: U.S. prosecutors asked a federal judge to tighten the bail restrictions for Sam Bankman-Fried in a letter alleging that S.B.F. had attempted to contact former employees of F.T.X. and its holding company Alameda through email and the encrypted messaging app Signal; prosecutors alleged that this may have amounted to witness tampering, and asked the judge to order S.B.F. not to contact any former employees of F.T.X. or use any encrypted messages.

2023 Feb 23: A revised indictment filed by U.S. Attorney Damian Williams added four conspiracy charges to the litany facing F.T.X. founder 'crypto conman' Sam Bankman-Fried and adds detail to the allegations that he ran a massive straw donor campaign finance scheme. The new charges include securities fraud and conspiracy fraud counts; prosecutors were continuing to build their case against Bankman-Fried, whom they accuse of cheating thousands of investors out of billions of dollars' worth of digital assets. The new charges increased the possible prison sentence Bankman-Fried could get if convicted from 115 years to 155 years.

2023 Feb 28: Former FTX exec Nishad Singh became the third member of Sam Bankman-Fried’s inner circle to plead guilty over the crypto exchange’s collapse.

2023 Oct 2: Date is set for New York City trial of S.B.F. on eight criminal charges.

2023 Nov 2: S.B.F. was convicted of seven counts of fraud and related crimes.

the year 2 0 2 4

2024 Feb 28: Sam Bankman-Fried’s lawyers argued in court that he should only serve between 5 and 6½ years in prison for fraud at F.T.X. - a far cry from the 100 years that probation officers suggested.

2024 March 28: S.B.F. was sentenced to 25 years in prison and ordered to forfeit $11 billion.

2024 May 8: F.T.X.’s customers are getting their money back—plus interest. This probably isn’t an outcome anyone would have bet on (except maybe F.T.X.’s notoriously risk-embracing founder, Sam Bankman-Fried), but attorneys for the bankrupt company say they’ve found enough cash to pay back its customers with interest. The recovery of the crypto market plus the ability to sell assets such as a stake in AI company Anthropic will give F.T.X. as much as $16.3 billion to distribute, the lawyers said. The plan still has to be okayed by a judge, but current CEO John Ray, who took over F.T.X. after its collapse, noted that “in any bankruptcy, this is just an unbelievable result” However, there won’t be money left for the investors that backed F.T.X.

2024 May 28: Ryan Salame, the former co-CEO of F.T.X.’s Bahamian subsidiary, was sentenced to 7.5 years in prison; he was ordered to surrender in October and serve his time at F.C.I. Cumberland

2024 Aug 8: FTX was ordered to pay $12.7 billion to customers. All customers will recoup their deposits that were locked when the crypto exchange went under in 2022, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission said on Thursday. FTX was able to guarantee the payments thanks to its bankruptcy liquidation, which it’s also used to reach settlements with regulators and former business partners of founder Sam Bankman-Fried, now serving 25 years for fraud. Some FTX customers reportedly feel stiffed, since their payouts are based on 2022 crypto prices.

2024 Aug 21: Former F.T.X. exec Ryan Salame asked a court to void his guilty plea, saying that the government reneged on a promise not to investigate his domestic partner for campaign finance violations.

2024 Nov 20: F.T.X. co-founder Gary Wang avoided prison time for his role in the historic fraud orchestrated by Sam Bankman-Fried because of his cooperation with the government.

2024 December: There is about $3.68 trillion tied up in cryptocurrencies today.

the year 2 0 2 5

2025 Jan 23: President Trump issued Executive Order 14178: Strengthening American Leadership in Digital Financial Technology, which includes hiring of a Special Adviser for AI and Crypto

2025 March: TV host Tucker Carlson interviewed Sam Bankman-Fried, who made an 'indirect pitch to Mr. Trump' to pardon his case, emphasizing that some of his donations went for Republican causes. The interview was unsanctioned by prison authorities and S.B.F. was immediately placed in solitary confinement then moved out of the New York area to Federal Correctional Institution, Terminal Island, a low security Federal prison in Los Angeles, California.

hedge fund Alameda Research [founded Nov 2017; folded Nov 2022]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alameda_Research
co-founded by Sam Bankman-Fried
co-founded by 'effective altruism' colleague [Ms.] Tara Mac Aulay

F.T.X. Cryptocurrency Exchange [est. 5/2019; bankrupt 11/2022]
founded in May 2019 by Sam Bankman-Fried & Gary Wang; filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy 11/11/2022
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FTX_(company)

Dan Friedberg [hired in March 2020]
F.T.X. chief compliance officer; also lawyer implicated in Ultimate Bet’s online poker-cheating scandal.

John J. Ray III, F.T.X.’s new CEO since 11/2022, is making $1,300 an hour.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_J._Ray_III

former F.T.X. exec Ryan Salame
former co-CEO of F.T.X.; former CEO at FDM (FTX Digital Markets) in the Bahamas

F.T.X. main website {redirects to customer claims pages}
http://claims.ftx.com/welcome

F.T.X. Future Fund []
charity guided by 'effective altruism' that aims to 'use reason and evidence to do the most good possible for the most people'.

venture capital giant Sequoia Capital [est. 1972]
which invested in F.T.X.’s Series B funding round and advocated for Bankman-Fried; the value of Sequoia's investment in F.T.X. was ultimately written down to $0; it is estimated that they lost $214 million on their investment.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sequoia_Capital

Sullivan & Cromwell [], the law firm working on FTX’s bankruptcy
the law firm working on F.T.X.’s bankruptcy, is billing more than $2,100 per hour for some of their work on the case, per court filings.
In remarks prepared for Congress (that he didn’t deliver), S.B.F. wrote that the law firm used 'mentally unbalanced' tactics
to pressure him to file for Chapter 11.

[Ms.] Tara Mac Aulay
trained as a pharmacist in Australia, then worked with the Red Cross in Indonesia & Bhutan
The Centre for Effective Altruism [est. 2009]
C.E.A. is based in Oxford, England; office in Berkeley, California COO 3/2015 to 9/2017, CEO 9/2017 to 1/2018
co-founded hedge fund Alameda Research [Nov 2017 to Nov 2022] with Sam Bankman-Fried
CEO of Lantern Ventures [est. 2018] in London, England - a digital currency trading firm with over $250 million under management

disgraced cryptocurrency titan Sam Bankman-Fried [b. 3/1992]

co-founded F.T.X. and his hedge fund, Alameda Research [Nov 2017 to Nov 2022]
his parents, Stanford Law professors Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried
his defense attorney Christian Everdell (9/2023)
2022 Dec 12: S.B.F. was arrested in Nassau, Bahamas by Royal Bahamas Police Force at the request of the U.S. Government.
2023 Jan 3: former F.T.X. CEO S.B.F. pled not guilty to eight criminal counts including wire fraud, money laundering, and violating campaign finance laws.

Going Infinite / Rise and Fall book by Michael Lewis

"Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of A New Tycoon" [2023] by Michael Lewis
the high-octane story of Sam Bankman-Fried, the enigmatic figure at the heart of one of the XXIst Century's
most spectacular financial collapses
Kindle Edition from W.W. Norton & Co. [10/2023] for $9.66
W.W. Norton & Co. 9½x6½ hardcover [10/2023] for $18.81
Penguin 9½x6½ hardcover [10/2023] for $32.30
"60 Minutes: Rise, Fall of Sam Bankman-Fried, F.T.X." episode [CBS-TV News Oct 2023]
S56.E3 of the "60 Minutes" TV news magazine [since 1968] /tt0123338/
first segment is an interview of U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland; second segment is "The Rise and Fall of Sam Bankman-Fried" interview of journalist Michael Lewis about his new book about SBF • Produced by Draggan Mihailovich; featuring reporter Jon Wertheim, author Michael Lewis, Sam Bankman-Fried, with archive footage of Tom Brady, Stephen Curry, Shaquille O'Neal • episode credits at IMDb
watch full segment [26:49] online at YouTube

Caroline Ellison, the former CEO of Alameda Research
In December 2022, Ellison hired Stephanie Avakian of law firm WilmerHale as her lead attorney; also in 12/2022, Ellison pled guilty in New York to charges of fraud
incomplete credits info at IMDb
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caroline_Ellison

veteran bankruptcy pro John J. Ray III, the newly-appointed CEO of F.T.X. (11/2022)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_J._Ray_III

former F.T.X. exec Ryan Salame
former co-CEO of F.T.X.; former CEO at FDM (FTX Digital Markets) in the Bahamas

former F.T.X. exec Nishad Singh
pled guilty 2/2023 and became the third member of Sam Bankman-Fried’s inner circle to plead guilty over the crypto exchange’s collapse.

Gary Wang, who co-founded F.T.X.
pled guilty 12/2022 in New York to charges of fraud; 11/2024 Wang was sentenced, avoiding prison time for his role in the historic fraud
orchestrated by Sam Bankman-Fried because of Wang's cooperation with the government.

Fraud Trial Personnel
U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan
U.S. Attorney Damian Williams
defense attorney Christian Everdell (9/2023)

FTX Limited Series [ann 11/2022 - still in development? 2025] - no entry found on IMDb
Announced 23 Nov 2022: An eight-episode limited series about the FTX scandal from Joe and Anthony Russo’s production company AGBO has been set up at Amazon.
David Weil is set to executive produce & write the pilot; the Russos are in talks to direct in addition to executive producing; other executive producers include
Mike Larocca, Angela Russo-Otstot, and Scott Nemes for AGBO as well as Natalie Laine Williams.

"Crypto: The World’s Greatest Scam" [indep Jan 2023]

superb explanation from blockchain up thru the dangers of N.F.T. - delivered in urgent voice by James Jani
watch full 1/2023 podcast [54:18] online at YouTube

"The Altruists" 8-episode TV mini-series [Higher Ground/Netflix - release TBD] /tt36786185/ 2026?

Follows the tumultuous romance between FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried and his girlfriend Caroline Ellison and their ambitious attempts to revolutionize the financial system, leading to a $36 billion fraud • 9 total producers are listed; exec producer, writer & co-showrunner Graham Moore; exec producer & co-showrunner Jacqueline Hoyt; Barack and Michelle Obama will executive produce under their Higher Ground banner along with Vinnie Malhotra; exec producers Scoop Wasserstein, Lauren Morelli; exec producer James Ponsoldt will direct the first episode; starring Julia Garner {as Caroline Ellison}, Anthony Boyle {as Sam Bankman-Fried}

L i n k s
Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC)
U.S. Federal Reserve [est. 12/1913]
Securities and Exchange Commission
New York State Department of Financial Services
House Financial Services Committee + chair Cong. Maxine Waters [Dem CA-?]

Visiting this webpage from outside the U.S.A.? It is possible to make purchases from these coded Amazon (USA) links
via other Amazon sites: just follow these instructions.

		"The Rise and Fall of Samuel Bankman-Fried (SBF): How A 30-Year-Old Burned $30 Billion In 48 Hours" [2022] by Michael K. Palmer one of the biggest net-worth losses of modern times, from $26 billion to nothing overnight Kindle Edition from indep [11/2022] for $5.83 indep 9x6 large print pb [11/2022] for $11.27
		"Number Go Up: Inside Crypto's Wild Rise and Staggering Fall" [2023] Amazon bestseller by Zeke Faux 'this Sam Bankman-Fried book is masterfully written and the far-superior guide to understanding the FTX debacle, and SBF himself' Kindle Edition from Crown Currency [9/2023] for $13.99 Crown Currency 9x6 pb [9/2023] for $31.27 Crown Currency 9½x6½ hardcover [9/2023] for $26.09

Spirit of America Bookstore Cryptocurrency F.T.X. Collapse Page'starring' Sam Bankman-Fried

Spirit of America Bookstore
Cryptocurrency F.T.X. Collapse Page
'starring' Sam Bankman-Fried