FTX via Reuters
If there were lingering doubts about Sam Bankman-Fried’s strategic thinking—assuming one could overlook the bankruptcy filing, the bizarre tweets, and the billions of dollars in missing customer assets—those doubts surely evaporated after midnight on Wednesday, when the fallen billionaire chose to DM with a reporter at Vox to discuss his imperiled crypto exchange FTX, delivering answers with a level of candor that would make many attorneys retch.
The 30-year-old is experiencing a virtually unprecedented collapse. In rapid succession, he had ascended from MIT wunderkind to millionaire to billionaire to global crypto figurehead, only to have it all evaporate overnight. He doesn’t seem to be taking his downfall well.
Last summer, Bankman-Fried had described his ethical framework to the Vox reporter, Kelsey Piper, telling her that unethical conduct was not acceptable, even in service of “the greater good.”