[imagesource: Twitter / @ben_kew]

Dubbed ‘crypto’s white knight’, Sam Bankman-Fried’s world and his personal net worth have come crashing down in the most dramatic fashion.

Bloomberg called it “one of history’s greatest-ever destructions of wealth” as the man known simply as SBF went from a net worth of $16 billion to a net worth of well, pretty much zero in a matter of days.

We say pretty much because he’s currently hiding out in the Bahamas, where FTX, the crypto exchange platform he founded, has a number of lavish penthouses.

FTX is involved in a messy and contentious bankruptcy process and it remains unclear how much money those out of pocket will be able to recoup.

Having already taken part in one ill-advised interview, SBF decided to chat with Axios earlier this week:

 “Am I allowed to say a negative number?” he said, when asked about his personal finances. “I mean, I have no idea. I don’t know. I had $100,000 in my bank account last I checked,” he said.

“It’s complicated. Basically everything I had was just tied up in the company,” he added.

Ag shame, man. Just the $100 000 stashed away and you’re not even bothering to keep track?

Countless ordinary investors have also lost nearly everything and they don’t even have a penthouse in the Bahamas to show for it.

BREAKING: SAM BANKMAN FRIED, HIS MUM (Barbara Fried) AND HIS DAD (Joseph Bankman) ALL SPOTTED AT HIS BAHAMAS PENTHOUSE TODAY 🚨 pic.twitter.com/8JKxIvbkTy

— That Martini Guy ₿ (@MartiniGuyYT) November 23, 2022

At one stage, SBF’s personal wealth peaked at $26,5 billion and he’s now admitting he may have been a bit silly:

“I wish I’d been more careful… I obviously deeply regret this. I’ve been focusing on volume, rather than positions for balances,” he said. “I should have been more responsible, and I should have been more on top of what was going on.”

He’ll keep trotting out these lines because, well, what else can he do?

Meanwhile, reporting from the likes of The Washington Post shows that SBF and FTX blew through cash in a most irresponsible manner:

Conference guests partied in casinos where Bahamians weren’t allowed to gamble and hobnobbed with celebrity attendees, including singer Katy Perry and football veteran Tom Brady. For one party, VIPs took a boat from the island to a second, even fancier island for a feast of lobster, a private DJ concert and an open bar…

“Never in my career have I seen such a complete failure of corporate controls and such a complete absence of trustworthy financial information,” said [lawyer John J. Ray III], who once oversaw the liquidation of Enron, one of America’s most infamous corporate frauds.

The shockwaves from FTX’s spectacular collapse are still echoing through the crypto world.

Other platforms are facing mass withdrawals and Luno, South Africa’s biggest crypto exchange, is now issuing statements assuring its users that everything is fine.

That’s despite being directly linked to companies affected by the collapse of FTX.

All in all, it’s not a great time to be a crypto bro.

[sources:axios&washpost]