109 - SBF and the Future of FTX

Sam Bankman-Fried—or simply SBF—is the founder and CEO of FTX, one of crypto’s biggest exchanges. In this episode, we dive into how Sam built a company worth $30 billion… in less than three years! And before the age of 30! As a centralized exchange unicorn, FTX has exploded into the mainstream, sponsoring massive sports arenas and partnerships with celebrities like Tom Brady. The mainstream-ification of FTX culminated with its Super Bowl ad with Larry David, which had a significant cultural impact on FTX and crypto more broadly. Is Sam on Team DeFi? Or is FTX a competitor? And what about banks? SBF also recently appeared in front of Congress. After this discussion, we are increasingly convinced of the alignment between Bankless and SBF. ------ ✨ DEBRIEF ✨ | Ryan & David's Unfiltered Thoughts on the Episode https://shows.banklesshq.com/p/debrief-sbf  ------ 📣 OPOLIS | Sign Up to Get 1000 $WORK and 1000 $BANK https://bankless.cc/Opolis  ------ 🚀 SUBSCRIBE TO NEWSLETTER:          https://newsletter.banklesshq.com/   🎙️ SUBSCRIBE TO PODCAST:                 http://podcast.banklesshq.com/   ------ BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS:  ⚖️ ARBITRUM | SCALING ETHEREUM https://bankless.cc/Arbitrum  🍵 MATCHA | SMART ORDER ROUTING https://bankless.cc/Matcha  🚀 SLINGSHOT | LAYER 2 SOCIAL TRADING https://bankless.cc/Slingshot  🏦 GEMINI | TURN FIAT INTO CRYPTO https://bankless.cc/Gemini  🦁 BRAVE | THE BROWSER NATIVE WALLET https://bankless.cc/Brave  🦄 UNISWAP | DECENTRALIZED FUNDING https://bankless.cc/UniGrants  ------ Topics Covered: 0:00 Intro 5:30 SBF 9:13 Building Successful Products 15:56 Why Sam is in Crypto 20:40 Crypto Values & Opportunity 25:27 Use Cases & Decentralization 31:04 The Future of FTX 37:18 FTX vs DeFi 41:16 SBF’s Preferred Blockchains 45:12 Sam’s Legendary Tweet 53:30 FTX vs Banks 56:46 Regulation 1:03:45 Talking to Congress 1:06:02 Spectrum of Decentralization 1:10:05 Super Bowl Ads 1:16:34 Mainstream Crypto & NFTs 1:21:30 Building Wealth 1:24:45 Giving Everything Away 1:27:45 Crypto Price Predictions 1:31:27 Crypto 5 Years from Now ------ Resources: SBF on Twitter https://twitter.com/SBF_FTX  FTX https://ftx.com/en  Sam’s Legendary Tweet https://twitter.com/SBF_FTX/status/1347964322459262977  FTX Super Bowl Commercial https://youtu.be/BH5-rSxilxo  ----- Not financial or tax advice. This channel is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. This video is not tax advice. Talk to your accountant. Do your own research. Disclosure. From time-to-time I may add links in this newsletter to products I use. I may receive commission if you make a purchase through one of these links. Additionally, the Bankless writers hold crypto assets. See our investment disclosures here: https://newsletter.banklesshq.com/p/bankless-disclosures