FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried has disappeared from the Bloomberg Billionaires Index after estimating that personal wealth plunged nearly 94% in a day to $991.5 million.
Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao announced Tuesday that he has signed a tentative agreement to acquire FTX after growing concerns about the Bahamas-based exchange’s apparent bankruptcy, slowing withdrawals and free-falling the price of FTX’s native token.
Before the company's cash crunch, Bankman-Fried was worth an estimated $15.2 billion, but according to Bloomberg, $14.6 billion evaporated overnight. Bankman-Fried's rapid financial success, coupled with his relatively youthful and eccentric personality -- including his alleged penchant for sleeping on beanbags in the office -- has made SBF one of the darlings of the crypto industry.
Bankman-Freed, a self-described "effective altruist," made a major pledge earlier this year to donate much of his then $21 billion fortune to charity. He also pledged to spend as much as $1 billion to support political candidates that fit into his broader mission of preparing for future pandemics.
