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From $16 Billion to Zero: Dem Megadonor Sam Bankman-Fried Has Lost All His Money

The crypto scion had pledged to donate $1 billion to Dem campaigns

Sam Bankman-Fried (Reuters)
November 11, 2022

The net worth of crypto scion Sam Bankman-Fried, who this year promised to donate a billion dollars to Democratic campaigns, is $0.

After his cryptocurrency company FTX declared bankruptcy and Bankman-Fried stepped down as CEO, the Democratic megadonor lost his entire $16 billion fortune.

The loss is one of the greatest destructions of a net worth ever, Bloomberg reported:

The downfall of his crypto empire—which filed for bankruptcy on Friday along with his resignation—means assets owned by the mogul once likened to John Pierpont Morgan have become worthless. 

At the peak, the 30-year-old was worth $26 billion, and he was still worth almost $16 billion at the start of the week.

The Bloomberg Billionaires Index now values FTX’s US business—of which Bankman-Fried owns about 70%—at $1 because of a potential trading halt, from $8 billion in a January fundraising round.

On Thursday, Bankman-Fried's philanthropic aides resigned, according to Puck News. They wrote a letter saying FTX leadership "may have engaged in deception or dishonesty."

"We are now unable to perform our work or process grants, and we have fundamental questions about the legitimacy and integrity of the business operations that were funding the FTX Foundation and the Future Fund," the letter said. "As a result, we resigned earlier today."

Bankman-Fried was a friendly face at the White House, participating in meetings just months ago. The Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission are now investigating FTX for allegedly mishandling customer funds.