Sam Bankman-Fried is possibly one of the most remarkable billionaires in the world. At the age of 29, he is the 66th richest person in the world with a fortune of $24.5 billion. Where does the sudden wealth come from and what does he do with it?
Born in Stanford, California in 1992, the boy studied at MIT and after graduation he had found an opportunity. A cryptocurrency exchange in the US had the bitcoin price at $10,000 (as recently as 2017). But another exchange in Japan had the price of $11,000 per Bitcoin. So Sam was buying Bitcoins in the US and selling them in Japan, doing this daily. This way, several millions came into his account, from which he then founded his company.
FTX was his big idea, which he founded in 2019. FTX is a cryptocurrency exchange. There you can trade not only cryptocurrencies, but also stocks. However, FTX's global platform is not accessible to US citizens. That is why there is FTX.US. Still, the offers there are much more limited than on the global platform.
FTX has a valuation of $18 billion as of July 2021. In October 2021, the company raised even more money and the Valuation increased to $25 billion. This is how Sam made his money.
Instead of spending his entire fortune on expensive cars and luxurious villas, he donates much of it. "Earning to give," he calls it. In 2020, he invested $5 million in Joe Biden's election campaign and what the Wall Street Journal says is the No. 2 CEO who helped Joe Biden. According to Vox, he will donate all the money he makes in his entire life to charity.
