Still in his twenties, Sam Bankman-Fried is so committed to never missing an opportunity that he’s known to sleep on the bean bag at his Hong Kong office desk. After finishing his physics degree at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2014, Sam Bankman-Fried spent three years as a trader at the quantitative trading firm Jane Street Capital before founding his own trading firm and liquidity provider, Alameda Research, in 2017.
Sam Bankman-Fried founded the cryptocurrency and derivatives exchange FTX in 2019, which has grown quickly to become the sixth-largest exchange by volume, boasting a $3.5 billion valuation. He is also a well-known philanthropist and may have aspirations to political influence, donating $5.2 million to President Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign.
Sam Bankman-Fried was named to Forbes’ 2021 ”30 Under 30” list in the category of finance, suggesting he is also making waves outside the crypto industry. Alameda, FTX and Serum will continue to release innovative products, such as FTX’s freshly launched Coinbase initial public offering futures.
He will continue to work toward his stated aim of attracting more than 1 billion people to decentralized finance and cryptocurrency, with FTX’s recent purchase of Blockfolio expected to bolster his own platform's numbers. He’ll also continue to push for the adoption of Solana and oversee the growth of the Serum ecosystem.
