Sam Bankman-Fried

About

I’m Sam Bankman-Fried, trader, founder, and builder of large-scale crypto-market infrastructure. After starting in quantitative finance, I moved into digital assets to solve liquidity, access, and product-design problems that traditional institutions were still ignoring. I’ve always thought in expected value, velocity, and scale, sometimes with stronger conviction than restraint. Still interested in market structure, philanthropy, and what responsible rebuilding looks like after total failure.

Experience

• 

  Reflective Sabbatical (in progress)

  Metropolitan Detention Center, Brooklyn

  Mar 2024 - Present · 2 yrs 2 mos

  Brooklyn, NY

  Focused on reflection, reading, and the slower consequences of decisions made too quickly

  • Increased reading volume significantly while operating in an environment with far fewer distractions and no leverage.
  • Spending time reassessing judgment, incentives, and the difference between cleverness and stewardship.
• 

  Founder & CEO

  FTX

  2019 - Nov 2022 · 3 yrs 10 mos

  Nassau, The Bahamas

  Built a major global crypto exchange centered on speed, product breadth, and retail-friendly execution

  • Scaled FTX to a $32B valuation, $10B in average daily trading volume, and 1M+ users in roughly 30 months.
  • Expanded listings and derivatives coverage quickly enough to become a top-tier venue in an unusually crowded market.
  • Raised $1.8B across five rounds while simultaneously promoting an aggressive philanthropic and public-policy posture.
• 

  Co-Founder & Co-CEO

  Alameda Research

  2017 - 2021 · 4 yrs

  Hong Kong to Nassau

  Built a quantitative crypto trading firm focused on arbitrage, market structure, and execution speed

  • Captured a dominant share of BTC-KRW arbitrage activity within weeks by moving faster than more conventional shops.
  • Executed tens of millions of trades per day across 50+ venues with very low internal routing latency.
  • Built an unusually intense operating culture around quantitative thinking, long hours, and mission language.
• 

  Trader, ETF Desk

  Jane Street Capital

  2014 - 2017 · 3 yrs

  New York, NY

  Market-made global ETFs across 10+ exchanges

  • Drove >$1T notional flow with net slippage <0.3 bps
  • Authored new risk-model that trimmed overnight exposure 42%
  • Voted "Most Likely to Nap Under Desk" three quarters running
• 

  Summer Fellow, Community & Outreach

  Centre for Effective Altruism

  Jun 2013 - Aug 2013 · 2 mos

  Oxford, UK

  Co-organized EA Global conference

  • Grew attendee count 250% YoY while keeping carbon footprint net-negative via creative bean burrito offsets

Education

• 

  Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  B.S., Physics & Mathematics

  2010 - Jun 2014 · 4 yrs 5 mos

  3.92 GPA • Undergraduate thesis on lattice quantum chromodynamics • Co-founded "MIT Poker Strategy Society" (grew chip count 6,700% in two semesters)

Honors & awards

• Forbes 30 Under 30 - Finance

  Forbes

  Issued Dec 2021

  Recognized for building FTX into a multibillion-dollar exchange (subsequently annotated with an asterisk)

• TIME100 Next

  TIME Magazine

  Issued Feb 2022

  Highlighted as a leader shaping the future of business and philanthropy