FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried, a poster child for the cryptocurrency industry’s worst excesses, is on trial in New York this week after adopting a new look: a solemn face and a jailhouse trim of his famously floppy hair. The change comes as prosecutors seek to portray him as the architect of a crypto empire that robbed investors of billions of dollars when the inflated market for digital currency burst, like asset bubbles always do.
At the heart of the government’s case is the allegation that Alameda Research, a trading and investment firm founded by SBF, used an unlimited line of credit to divert billions of dollars in funds from FTX customers to make its own speculative investments in assets such as FTT, the native token of FTX. In opening statements Wednesday, SBF’s attorneys gave no indication they planned to defend the standards and safeguards of the cryptocurrency industry.