Dissecting the legend of Sam Bankman-Fried

Spellcaster: the rise and fall of Sam Bankman-Fried

The rapid collapse of FTX, one of the world's largest cryptocurrency exchanges, in late 2022 shocked the world. At the center of the fiasco was Sam Bankman-Fried, a 29-year-old wunderkind who had entranced politicians, journalists, financiers, and others with his melding of altruism and digital currency. The sordid details revealed as the empire fell captured public attention—venture into the death spiral with this in-depth podcast from Bloomberg.

A look at the biography of Sam Bankman-Fried by author Michael Lewis

Michael Lewis released a book, "Going Infinite," on the day the subject of the book began his high-profile fraud trial. The book delves into the life of Sam Bankman-Fried, a young billionaire in the cryptocurrency world. Find out what the bestselling author discovered over two years and 100 interviews with Bankman-Fried.

Photos of Sam Bankman-Fried's $35M Bahamas home

Sam Bankman-Fried, the 31-year-old founder of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX, traded his luxury Bahamian penthouse for a courtroom and jailhouse. As part of his trial, the prosecution looked into his multimillion-dollar home in the Bahamas he...

FTX, one of the world's largest crypto exchanges, collapsed in 2022

As crypto markets declined during the post-pandemic slowdown, Sam Bankman-Fried propped up the markets with billions he'd earned leading FTX, one of the largest crypto exchanges. Then, in one of the most rapid financial implosions in modern history, the exchange collapsed as investors rushed to withdraw money.

Visualizing the financial troubles of FTX at the time of its bankruptcy

Just before Sam Bankman-Fried declared FTX bankrupt in November of 2022, he sought to raise funds quickly to try to save the cryptocurrency exchange. As part of that attempt, he sent around a glimpse of the exchange's current balance sheet, which showed the company had liabilities of $9 billion with only $900 million in liquid assets. Check out the visualization here.

Stephen Findeisen is the YouTuber taking on crypto scams

While many cryptocurrencies are focused on advanced technical projects or real-life uses, the proliferation of easy-to-create memecoins has led to a boom in scams. Stephen Findeisen, aka Coffeezilla, is regarded as one of the best independent investigative journalists exposing high-profile frauds, pump-and-dump schemes, rug-pulls, and more.

Jim Simons, mathematician turned government codebreaker turned trader, revolutionized quantitative investing

The late Jim Simons is remembered as one of the most successful (and profitable) hedge fund managers of all time. He went from physically gathering microfilm on commodities pricing decades ago to overseeing a firm that led Wall Street in daily trading volume.

Jimmy Zhong pulled off one of the biggest bitcoin heists in history

Jimmy Zhong performed a bitcoin heist—stealing more than 51,000 BTC from Silk Road in 2012. For years, he stayed under the radar, using crypto mixers to hide his tracks. But one small mistake in 2019 led investigators straight to him.

Robinhood's pivot from everyday investors to hyperactive traders

The platform was conceived as a hub for first-time investors looking to get into trading. After criticism in 2021, the company pivoted to focus on more regular, daily traders, among whom the company's CEO has now become a cult hero.

Bitcoin's founder has always remained anonymous

A pseudonym used by the person or group of people who created bitcoin—the first decentralized cryptocurrency—the real identity of Satoshi Nakamoto has baffled millions of enthusiasts for years.

The CEOs of the two top prediction markets have a fierce rivalry

Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour and Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan are both billionaire CEOs of the top two prediction markets—but they don't exactly get along. For instance, Mansour reportedly does not say the word "Polymarket" out loud, referring to it as the "non-American, unregulated platform."

Key moments in fintech history include the transatlantic cable’s invention and E-Trade’s founding

Founded in 1982, E-Trade was the first-ever online brokerage, pioneering a method of investing that is common today. Its story is part of a timeline that the New York Times put together of key moments in early fintech history.

Using cryptocurrency to turn traditional financial arrangements on their head

Cryptocurrency is poised to drastically change everything in the financial world, including financial arrangements. Decentralized finance makes it easier for virtually anyone to take advantage of financial markets without the need for a bank. However, there are new risks involved as well. Professor of Legal Studies and Business Ethics Kevin Werbach, an expert on Bitcoin and blockchains discusses it all in detail in The Conversation.

Who is Michael Burry?

Michael Burry is best known for shorting the mortgage bond market in 2007. Before the Great Recession, the legendary investor’s firm took a stake in GameStop and argued the company was being undervalued in 2019. Learn more about Burry’s historical impact on markets here.

Ray Dalio allegedly punched one of his early bosses

Before founding his hedge fund, Dalio traded commodities and futures. In 1974, Dalio allegedly punched one of his departmental bosses, causing him to lose his job at Shearson Hayden Stone. He founded Bridgewater Associates the following year. (Some users may experience a paywall.)

View a timeline of Sam Altman's firing and reinstatement as Open AI CEO

Besides saying that Altman hadn't been "consistently candid" in his discussions with them, OpenAI's board did not detail any wrongdoing that led to the firing on November 17, 2023. Four days later, Altman was reinstated, and a new board was assembled.

Twain was a notoriously bad investor

After becoming a famous writer, Twain invested in railroad stocks, a magnetic telegraph, and a printing press that weighed four tons. Eventually, he founded his own publishing company, which ultimately led to his bankruptcy. “He is, in business,” one lawyer said, “just a big overgrown boy.”

While day trading has risen in popularity in recent years, the SEC warns it is a speculative strategy that can cause big losses

A day trader is anyone who buys and sells a stock within the same trading day. They quickly move in and out of the market to try and profit. Some day traders are professionals, while others are retail investors.

Peter Tuchman is known as the 'Einstein of Wall Street'

Peter Tuchman has worked on the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange for over four decades and ranks among the most famous traders in history. “I still get butterflies in my stomach every morning when I come into work,” he said.

Soybean oil fraud almost decimated American Express in 1963

A New York commodities trader who had defrauded the American government over uninspected meat for school lunches, Anthony "Tino" De Angelis, used American Express warehouses to sell soybean oil. However, Angelis had actually filled the tanks with water and placed just enough soybean oil on top of the tanks to pass inspection. American Express was liable for many of the tanks and its stock faced a huge downturn, opening the door for a then 33-year-old Warren Buffett to make his first purchase in the company.

Cyan Banister, once homeless, was an angel investor in Uber, SpaceX, and DeepMind

Cyan Banister has invested in more than 100 companies, building a reputation in the angel-investing world for her unorthodox approach.

The SEC recently approved bitcoin ETFs in landmark investing decision

In January 2024, the US Securities and Exchange Commission made history when it decided to allow fund issuers to launch bitcoin ETFs. This new class of exchange-traded fund tracks spot bitcoin prices, essentially allowing investors to hold bitcoin without actually having to buy the crypto.

See the legendary live feud between Bill Ackman and Carl Icahn over Herbalife

In 2013, the two fought on live television in what may be one of the most-watched business television segments of all time. At one point, Icahn called Ackman a "liar" and a "crybaby," while Ackman told Icahn he was a dishonest guy.

A 2024 cheating scandal cast doubt on the industry

In 2024, National Fantasy Football Championship, a fantasy league with big payouts, fired one of its employees for manipulating data. The episode cast doubt on the relatively unregulated industry, despite the league coming down hard on the nefarious worker.

A reclusive billionaire ran Sears before its bankruptcy

Former Sears CEO and hedge fund manager Eddie Lampert was once kidnapped from his home in Greenwich, Connecticut by criminals looking to get rich. Some argue that the incident colored Sears’ history.

Warren Buffett's former professor Benjamin Graham is known as the 'father of value investing,' a strategy in which investors seek to buy stocks trading below their intrinsic worth.

While the first exchange-traded fund (a 'basket' of different assets that can be bought and sold on a stock exchange) in the US only launched in 1993, the global ETF market has grown to more than $10T in the short time since.

The idea for the Federal Reserve was conceived in secret in 1910—with bankers donning duck hunt gear for disguise while traveling to a remote country club on Georgia's Jekyll Island

SpaceX's S-1 or 'prospectus' revealed many previously unknown details about the company, including its unprofitability despite doing $18.7B in revenue in 2025, exactly how many voting shares Elon Musk will have in the company (roughly 85%), and more.

In 2009, the nation was gripped by the story of a missing young boy who was believed to be floating over Colorado in a homemade balloon, until it was revealed that he was at home the whole time.

The identity of the Tank Man in the iconic photo from the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests remains unknown and was possibly killed.

Memecoins are a type of cryptocurrency—a form of digital currency with a wide variety of uses—created around popular 'memes,' or viral internet jokes.

How Amazon operates a 'flywheel' business model, a self-reinforcing cycle that drives continuous growth

A 2019 Facebook event called on attendees to "Storm Area 51, They Can't Stop All of Us," resulting in countless memes, the creation of a music festival, and eventually the arrests of those who did try to approach the area.

'Saturday Night Fever,' the 1977 film that introduced disco to the mainstream, was based on a fabricated magazine story.

After her fellow cult members tried to kill her with an LSD-infused hamburger, one member of the Manson Family, the murderous cult led by Charles Manson, decided to testify against the group's leader.

Exploring the Larry Bird punch that almost changed March Madness

The Mona Lisa's celebrity status and repeated restorations have obscured what made the painting so revolutionary for its time

In 2019, a laptop loaded with six of the worst malware in history and described as 'an exhibit of historical weaponry' sold for $1.3M.

Mark Twain spent decades feuding with the US Postal Service, convinced its costs and regulations were bureaucratic overreach.

The name 'Silicon Valley' arose from the founding of Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory in Fairchild Semiconductor in 1956-57, founded near Stanford University in Palo Alto

Read a deep dive on the 'all-purpose healing' peptide BPC-157.

NBA superstar Victor Wembanyama spent the 2025 summer training with monks in central China to enhance his body and mind.

A Yale student wrote a profound essay about the consulting industry's influence on elite college students that was published in a book of her writing after she died in a post-graduation car accident.

Discover the catastrophic consequences of a failure of the US electrical grid—something that is more likely than many Americans think.

The first steps to rebuilding your credit score include getting to know exactly what's on your credit report and figuring out how far you are from the '700 club,' or 'good score' range.

Against his wishes, Albert Einstein's brain was removed before his cremation, and the pathologist responsible stored it for decades in mason jars within a beer cooler.

Domino's Pizza's 30-minute delivery guarantee was responsible for the chain's 1980s surge, but it was discontinued after the company was found liable for delivery driver accidents.

Watch how algorithms can be designed to train themselves and self-improve without human input, to the point where the optimized code is too complex for programmers to understand.

Fear or disgust related to clusters of holes and cracks, called trypophobia, may stem from evolutionary processes to help us avoid pathogens.