- FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried became a billionaire and built a crypto empire extremely quickly.
- He's achieved this at a time when crypto is facing its most intense regulatory scrutiny ever.
- Insider spoke to Bankman-Fried, his friends, colleagues, and investors for a detailed profile of him.
FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried is the only other individual besides Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg to have gotten so rich so quickly.
The 29-year-old's crypto-derivatives exchange went from relative obscurity three years ago to rank sixth in spot trading and second in derivatives trading in just two years, according to CoinGecko.
With a net worth of $26.5 billion according to Forbes, Bankman-Fried has rapidly built an empire in an industry that is also growing at breakneck speed. He's done it at a time when crypto is facing the most intense regulatory scrutiny it's ever seen. And so far, FTX has managed to stay out of trouble while rival exchanges have not.
Insider spoke with Bankman-Fried and several of his closest friends, colleagues, and investors for an in-depth profile of the crypto billionaire. They described, in detail, what it's like to work with him, the work ethic that made him so successful so quickly, and how he's been able to attract major investors while skirting regulatory scrutiny.
