A collective sigh of relief echoed in crypto circles after Sam Bankman-Fried’s 5-week trial reached its conclusion on Thursday. It took the jury less than five hours to reach a verdict.
Crypto community relieved as the bell tolls for Sam Bankman-Fried
The once self-proclaimed crypto king saw his greed-fuelled empire crumble in November 2022. Once valued at $32bn, FTX was a leading cryptocurrency exchange.
A 12-member jury found Bankman-Fried guilty on all charges. These included siphoning funds to the cryptocurrency-based hedge fund, Alameda Research, using customer funds for personal gains, and funding political campaigns in an attempt to influence cryptocurrency policy.
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Damian Williams Source: US Attorney’s Office
Cryptocurrency experts and advocates feel Bankman-Fried’s fraud and corruption stained the whole industry, and, that now that justice has taken its course, it can finally emerge from the shadows. The US attorney who led the case, Damian Williams, said:
Sam Bankman-Fried perpetrated one of the biggest financial frauds in American history – a multibillion-dollar scheme designed to make him the king of crypto. This case has always been about lying, cheating and stealing, and we have no patience for it.
Yahoo Finance captured the sentiments of many in the cryptocurrency industry. Among them was the US chief executive officer (CEO) of Bitstamp, a European crypto exchange, Boddy Zagotta, who commented:
With the trial’s conclusion, the crypto community can start to turn the page on this unfortunate chapter. SBF … does not define the crypto sector or what we aim to achieve.
When FTX fell, the resultant chain reaction made a $2tn dent in the industry’s value in 2022. It also gave regulators a platform from which to launch in-depth inspections of products and transparency.
