NYT Still Touting Sam Bankman-Fried at DealBook Summit
He may have other things going on
It’s been a bad few days for Sam Bankman-Fried, the ex-billionaire founder of cryptocurrency exchange FTX, whose net worth plunged with historic speed this week after leaked financials sent FTX users on a bank run. In the span of a few days, the exodus drained their liquid assets, forcing Bankman-Fried to suspend withdrawals and ask his rival, Binance, for a bailout that lasted just 24 hours before they looked at their financials and decided to pull out. But Bankman-Fried has at least one pal left: The New York Times.
At 3:29 p.m. — several hours after Bankman-Fried admitted he had “fucked up” and was “sorry” for disappearing several billion in user investments — the Times sent out this email:
If you, as I did, think this might have been a prank, consider that this information matches the date and lineup info on the DealBook site. The event is indeed on Nov. 30 at Jazz at Lincoln Center. Will Bankman-Fried still be speaking? The DealBook website seems to think so — they still have a dedicated page for him, which offers this bio:
Sam Bankman-Fried is a 29-year-old American investor, entrepreneur and philanthropist. He is the C.E.O. and co-founder of FTX US, a U.S.-based cryptocurrency exchange and is also the C.E.O. and co-founder of FTX.com, a non-U.S. cryptocurrency derivatives exchange.
Whether he will actually show remains to be seen, as the founder has two federal bodies investigating him and at least one rumored, totally unconfirmed, but not unbelievable arrest (though he does still seem to be making time to game). We reached out to the Times for comment, and much like FTX users trying to withdraw their funds, have not yet heard back.
