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