sambankman-fried

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried continues to hope that one day he could walk free with the help of a presidential pardon. However, new comments from someone who shared prison quarters with him suggest his chances may be far slimmer than many believe.
Michael Avenatti, a former attorney and one-time cellmate of Bankman-Fried, claims there is one major obstacle standing in SBF’s way: according to him, the former crypto billionaire has never accepted responsibility for the collapse of FTX.
“He Never Admitted He Did Anything Wrong”
Avenatti shared his experience on X, stating that he repeatedly encouraged Bankman-Fried to acknowledge his mistakes and take responsibility for the events that led to the downfall of one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in history.
According to Avenatti, SBF never admitted that he had done anything wrong.
That, he argues, is precisely why any request for a presidential pardon should fail.
“True redemption begins with accepting responsibility,” Avenatti said, adding that someone unwilling to acknowledge their own mistakes does not deserve forgiveness.
A Technology Visionary, But Not the Right Person to Run a Multi-Billion-Dollar Company?
Interestingly, Avenatti did not criticize Bankman-Fried across the board.
He acknowledged SBF’s intelligence and described him as a talented technology visionary with a deep understanding of innovation.
However, according to Avenatti, that is where the strengths ended.
He argued that Bankman-Fried should never have been running a company worth tens of billions of dollars and that his biggest weakness was his own ego.
Had he brought in experienced executives to manage the business, Avenatti believes SBF might still be free today and potentially worth close to $100 billion.
He pointed to Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin as an example, noting that they brought in experienced executive Eric Schmidt to help guide the company through its rapid growth phase.
Trump Has Already Indicated His Position
Bankman-Fried has repeatedly argued that he was unfairly prosecuted and continues to maintain that he did not commit fraud. He has also pointed out that many FTX customers ultimately recovered their funds.
Nevertheless, the collapse of FTX remains one of the largest financial scandals in cryptocurrency history.
President Donald Trump has already suggested that he has no plans to grant a pardon to the former FTX chief. So far, Bankman-Fried has not appeared among the individuals publicly mentioned as potential candidates for clemency.
The Fight Is Far From Over
Despite his conviction and lengthy prison sentence, SBF continues to pursue appeals and other legal avenues in an effort to overturn his case.
Critics, however, continue to point to the handling of customer funds and the eventual collapse of FTX as the central reasons behind his conviction.
And if those who shared a prison cell with him are correct, his greatest obstacle may not be the courts at all—it may be his continued refusal to accept any responsibility for one of the biggest disasters the crypto industry has ever witnessed.
#SamBankman-Fried , #SBF , #TRUMP , #CryptoNews , #FTX
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#SBF didn't just run a crypto exchange.
He was quietly building what might've been the most prescient investment portfolio in modern finance — until he torched it all by stealing from his own customers.
Let the numbers speak.
1. #Anthropic — The AI Crown Jewel
#FTX dropped $500M into Anthropic for an 8% stake when the AI company was worth just $2.5 billion. Early. Visionary. Perfect.
Then came the collapse.
Bankruptcy liquidators sold that same stake in two batches through early 2024 — walking away with $1.3B total. Felt like a win at the time.
Anthropic just closed its Series G at $380 billion.
That 8% stake? Worth $30 billion today.
FTX left $28.7 billion on the table. That's nearly the entire peak valuation of FTX itself — gone, because the estate had to liquidate fast.
2. #Robinhood — The Sleeper Stock
In May 2022, SBF's vehicle Emergent Fidelity Technologies quietly accumulated a 7.6% stake in Robinhood for $648M — at a time when HOOD was trading near all-time lows.
It was either genius contrarian timing or a coincidence. Either way, it was right.
The stake got swept into bankruptcy proceedings. Creditors got cents on the dollar when the position was unwound. Meanwhile, Robinhood roared back.
3. CURSOR — The $200K Miracle
This one is almost too painful to read.
Alameda Research — FTX's trading arm — invested $200,000 into a tiny AI coding startup called Anysphere during its pre-seed round in April 2022. That bought roughly 5% of the company.
When bankruptcy hit, liquidators sold it. For exactly $200K. No markup. Just... gone.
The startup built Cursor, the AI code editor now used by 67% of Fortune 500 companies, crossing $1B in annualized revenue.
Yesterday, SpaceX announced an option to acquire Cursor for $60 billion.
That $200K stake? Currently worth an estimated $3 billion.
A 15,000x return. Sold at cost.
4. $SUI — The Token Heist
FTX Ventures put $101M into Mysten Labs in August 2022 — just months before implosion — securing equity plus warrants to purchase 888 million SUI tokens for $1M extra.
In March 2023, Mysten Labs bought everything back for $96.3M — two months before SUI's mainnet launched.
At SUI's peak, those 888M tokens alone were worth over $3.5 billion. The full warrant position (1.6B tokens)? $6+ billion.
Sold for $96M.
The total?
Anthropic: $30B
Robinhood: potentially $5-10B
Cursor: $3B
SUI: $3.5–6B
That's a portfolio worth north of $40–50 billion today.
Buried under bankruptcy filings, court orders, and forced liquidations.
SBF had the eye. He genuinely saw these bets before almost anyone else.
But he funded it all with other people's money — money that wasn't his to risk.
That's not investing. That's theft with good taste.
And that's what makes this the most haunting portfolio in crypto history. #SamBankman-Fried