[imagesource: YouTube / NBC News]

The price of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies has risen and fallen dramatically on multiple occasions over the past few years.

Maybe you sold a while ago, maybe you’re on Team HODL, or maybe you never bothered dipping a toe into the water and you’re just watching on from afar.

Whatever your circumstances, you’ve certainly never lost as much money in a single day as Sam Bankman-Fried.

Dubbed ‘Crypto’s white knight’ by CNN, after he repeatedly bailed out rivals who had landed themselves in trouble, the man known as SBF lost 94% of his wealth over a 24-hour period he will never forget:

[He] started this week firmly in the realm of billionaires, with an estimated fortune of more than $15 billion… After the collapse of his crypto exchange, FTX, in a matter of days he may find himself out of the club.

His most valuable assets were his stakes in FTX, the crypto exchange he founded, and Alameda, a crypto trading house.

[FTX being wiped out] would leaves SBF’s net worth at about $1 billion — a 94% collapse and the biggest one-day loss by a person tracked by the index.

Those figures are actually a tad out of date.

SBF is now estimated to be worth $992 million so it’s goodbye to the billionaire club.

Worse still, Binance, the world’s biggest cryptocurrency platform, had agreed to buy FTX and save the day earlier in the week. However, that deal is now up in smoke, reports Al Jazeera:

Binance signed a non-binding agreement on Tuesday to buy FTX’s non-United States unit to help cover a “liquidity crunch” at the rival exchange, but the deal was subject to further due diligence.

“As a result of corporate due diligence, as well as the latest news reports regarding mishandled customer funds and alleged US agency investigations, we have decided that we will not pursue the potential acquisition of FTX,” Binance said in a statement on Wednesday.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission is now looking into whether FTX mishandled customer funds and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission is also digging around.

Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao shared this brief sentiment:

Sad day. Tried, but 😭

— CZ 🔶 Binance (@cz_binance) November 9, 2022

Those who held crypto through FTX have been making withdrawal requests en masse.

SBF told investors yesterday that the cryptocurrency exchange needed emergency funding of around $8 billion to cover a shortfall due to those requests.

A little more on SBF’s previously celebrated reputation via Coindesk:

Bankman-Fried’s rapid rise to financial success, combined with his relative youth and eccentric personality – including his supposed penchant for sleeping on a beanbag in his office – made SBF one of the darlings of the crypto industry.

A self-described “effective altruist,” Bankman-Fried made big promises earlier this year to donate the majority of his fortune, at the time valued at $21 billion, to charity. He also promised to spend up to $1 billion to support political candidates aligned with his broader mission of preparing for future pandemics.

It’s been widely reported that on Tuesday morning, he told FTX employees, “I’m sorry. I fucked up.”

Yes, it appears you did.

[sources:cnn&aljazeera&coindesk]