If someone told you that a 30-year-old curly-haired young man could build a financial empire larger than the Swiss Bank in three years, then lose it all in four days, and finally be 'betrayed' in court by his ex-girlfriend and childhood friend, landing him 25 years in prison—you might think this script is too melodramatic, even for online literature.
But this is the true life of SBF.
A super roller coaster ride from a genius teenager to the 'Emperor of the Crypto World' and then to a convict, more thrilling than any Hollywood blockbuster.
The story starts from.....
Chapter One: How a Genius is Forged (and why smart people are more likely to mess up)
In 1992, SBF was born in Stanford, California—yes, that place, the most expensive, smartest, and most "Versailles" place in the US.
His parents are professors at Stanford Law School, a true academic family.
Children growing up in such an "IQ crushing" environment either become geniuses who change the world or become delusional madmen who think they can change the world.
SBF clearly chose the latter.
In 2008, 16-year-old SBF attended a summer training camp specifically designed to recruit math geniuses.
There, he met Gary Wang—a similarly smart but more understanding "quietly making a fortune" Asian guy.
The two then established a perfect division of labor: SBF was responsible for bragging and self-destruction, while Gary was responsible for writing code to implement these crazy ideas. This combination later proved to be both the cornerstone of the FTX empire and its grave digger.
The college life at MIT completely led SBF astray.
Besides studying mathematics and physics, he also became fascinated with a seemingly prestigious theory—"effective altruism." In simple terms: "I want to make a lot of money and then save the world."
Doesn't that sound familiar?
Yes, every nouveau riche will draw big pies for their subordinates, preaching the "wealthy leading the poor" philosophy.
After graduating in 2014, SBF entered the legendary trading firm Jane Street on Wall Street.
This company has a special tradition: encouraging employees to bet on anything.
Today bet which intern can stay, tomorrow bet how many candies someone can eat in 45 seconds.
Although the daily limit was only $100, this kind of "everything can be gambled" corporate culture completely activated SBF's inner gambling gene.
What's more deadly is that he also met Caroline Ellison at Jane Street—a colleague who seemed harmless but was actually deeply scheming.
The girl who later became his girlfriend ultimately gave him the most fatal stab in court.
It really proves that saying: the person who knows you best hurts you the deepest.
Chapter Two: The Man Who Discovered the Money Printer (and How He Ruined It)
In 2017, cryptocurrency entered a frenzy, with Bitcoin's price skyrocketing like a rocket.
Sharp-eyed SBF discovered a secret comparable to a "money printer": the price of Bitcoin on different exchanges in different countries actually differed by 10%-20%!
This is simply picking up money!
Buying Bitcoin in the US for $10,000 and flipping it in Japan for $12,000!
SBF immediately pulled in former colleagues and old friend Gary, rented a shabby Airbnb in Berkeley, California, and established a seemingly prestigious "quantitative trading company" called Alameda Research.
What does it mean to make money like drinking water?
SBF netted $20 million in just a few weeks.
By January 2018, they could achieve $1 million in revenue in a single day. This feeling of "making money while lying down" completely inflated SBF.
But, smart people often have a common flaw—emotional intelligence in the negative numbers.
SBF required all employees to work 18 hours a day, yet went several weeks without showering, with smelly socks and leftover food scattered everywhere in the office, often falling asleep on the table during meetings.
What's scarier is that he had no concept of money at all; losing $500,000 a day in the trading system didn't bother him.
In April 2018, the partner Tara Mac Aulay, unable to bear it any longer, finally exploded, taking half the staff and most of the funds to "dissolve", leaving SBF alone in the wind.
At this time, Caroline Ellison made a stunning appearance.
This former colleague from Jane Street not only helped SBF clean up the mess but also conveniently won his heart (and the perfect opportunity to betray him later).
Chapter Three: The Birth of FTX—When a Genius Decided to "Reinvent the Wheel"
In 2019, the bear market had everyone crying poor, but SBF saw an opportunity.
Since the existing exchanges are so trash, why not create one yourself?
Thus, FTX (Future Trade Exchange) emerged.
SBF's product philosophy is very simple: everything can be tokenized!
US presidential election? You can bet! NBA championship? You can bet!
Will Bitcoin go up or down tomorrow? Of course, you can bet!
The various bizarre derivatives launched by FTX dazzled people, with leverage tokens, volatility contracts, equity tokens... it turned financial trading into a super-sized casino game.
Interestingly, in June 2019, CZ, who later became his biggest enemy, actually spent $100 million to buy 20% of FTX.
This was like investing in his own future grave digger; it was simply the most ironic investment decision in business history.
In 2021, the bull market arrived, and FTX began a crazy expansion mode.
Top investment institutions like Sequoia and SoftBank rushed to send money, and FTX's valuation skyrocketed to $18 billion.
At this point, SBF made a seemingly smart but ultimately self-destructive decision: to spend $2 billion to buy back the shares in CZ's hands.
This move not only drained cash flow but also cut off cooperation with Binance, laying the groundwork for the later life-and-death showdown.
Chapter Four: The Peak Moment—When the "Emperor of the Crypto World" Thought He Was Truly an Emperor
In 2022, SBF reached the peak of his life.
FTX was valued at $32 billion, surpassing Deutsche Bank; his personal fortune was $22.5 billion, making him the richest person under 30 in the world.
At this time, SBF really thought he was the "Emperor of the Crypto World".
At the Super Bowl in the US, FTX's advertisements dazzled the world along with the halftime shows of Snoop Dogg and Eminem.
SBF spent money to hire sports superstars like Tom Brady and Stephen Curry as endorsers, simply the perfect embodiment of "foolish people with a lot of money."
Even more exaggerated, while other cryptocurrency companies were trembling in the "crypto winter," SBF threw money around like a "white knight" to save people.
Celsius collapsed, and he put up money to save it; BlockFi went under, and he also put up money to save it. He even publicly claimed he had prepared $2 billion specifically to save struggling cryptocurrency companies.
How generous did this become? They established a fund promising to invest $160 million in hundreds of projects.
Even crazier, they sent emails to 100 experts: "Hey, even though you don't know us, here's $1 million, no conditions, just figure out how to spend it."
Of course, now we know the true source of this money—deposits from FTX clients.
SBF used other people's money to act generous, a textbook case of "being generous with others' wealth."
Chapter Five: The Technical Ponzi Scheme—How to "Steal Money" with Code without Being Discovered
Behind the glamorous surface, SBF was playing a technical Ponzi scheme.
The core of this operation is: creating "paper wealth" with fake tokens controlled by oneself and then using this fake money as collateral to borrow real money.
The operation method was as follows: SBF first created a "decentralized" trading platform called Serum on the Solana chain (which was actually run by his own people), and then "incubated" a bunch of projects, each issuing its own tokens.
Next comes the magic time: suppose Alameda invests $2 million in a new project but claims the total value of this project is $1 billion.
How did he do it?
They only released 1% of the tokens for trading, then manipulated the market to inflate the price to the sky.
As a result, a $2 million investment turned into $200 million worth of assets on paper.
The scariest part is that the platform token FTT issued by FTX was also manipulated this way.
Alameda held $3.66 billion worth of FTT, the price of which was entirely determined by SBF. He could inflate the price of FTT at any time and then use these "assets" as collateral to borrow real money from the bank.
This was like using the money printed by oneself to exchange for real money at the bank; it was simply the boldest scam in financial history.
When someone wants to expose this secret, they will receive threats and intimidation.
Chapter Six: The First Domino—CoinDesk's "Deadly" Report
On November 2, 2022, cryptocurrency media CoinDesk published a report that changed history.
They obtained Alameda Research's internal balance sheet, which was like the "death certificate" of SBF's carefully woven empire of lies.
Reports showed that among Alameda's $14.6 billion in assets, $3.66 billion were "unlocked FTT" and $2.16 billion were "FTT collateral."
In other words, one-third of the assets of this so-called "quantitative trading giant" are tokens controlled by the boss himself!
This was like exposing the trick of "transferring money from the left hand to the right hand" to the sunlight.
The market immediately exploded, and crypto influencers rushed to retweet and comment: "This is outrageous, using money printed by oneself as assets?"
On November 6, Binance's boss CZ finally took action.
He announced on Twitter: "Based on recent disclosures, we decided to liquidate all of our FTT." Once this was said, it was like throwing a grenade into a powder keg.
Even more laughable, Caroline Ellison (who was still co-CEO of Alameda at the time) actually jumped out and said: "How about we buy your FTT for $22?" This response was simply too obvious, equivalent to telling the whole world that FTT's real price isn't even worth $22.
The market panicked, and FTT began to plummet.
On this day, an empire valued at $32 billion began its countdown to death.
Chapter Seven: The Four-Day Annihilation—The Fastest Empire Collapse in History
The next four days were simply the most spectacular live broadcast of "chain explosions" in business history.
On November 8: The run began!
As clients frantically withdrew their funds, FTX's liquidity pool dwindled at a visible rate.
SBF also stubbornly insisted on Twitter: "FTX is doing well, the assets are all good!" but he quickly deleted the tweet—this small action became the official signal of the empire's collapse.
On November 9: Bloomberg reported that US federal agencies began investigating FTX, and CZ suddenly announced he was abandoning the acquisition plan.
The reason is simple: discovering that this company "mismanaged client funds" and is "under investigation by US authorities." Translated means: this is a mess, I won't take it over.
On November 10: SBF began "self-mutilation for survival" and announced the closure of Alameda Research. But it was too late; the Bahamian regulatory authorities froze all of FTX's assets.
On November 11: The grand finale!
FTX officially filed for bankruptcy, and SBF resigned.
Even more dramatic, on the day of bankruptcy, hackers took advantage of the chaos to steal $1 billion in client funds. Truly, "when it rains, it pours."
In four days, $32 billion evaporated, leaving millions of users with nothing.
This speed is faster than the sinking of the Titanic, practically setting a record for "light-speed bankruptcy" in business history.
Chapter Eight: The Court Drama—The "Backstabbing" Scene of Former Brothers and Sisters
The trial in 2023 was like an enhanced version of (Empresses in the Palace), with SBF's three most trusted individuals—his childhood friend Gary Wang, ex-girlfriend Caroline Ellison, and confidant Nishad Singh—all turning against him, taking turns to "stab him in the back" in court.
This childhood friend he has known since the age of 16 described in court, calmly like a robot, how SBF instructed him to implant a "cheat code" in the FTX code. Gary said: "We wrote special code allowing Alameda to withdraw FTX client funds without limit, bypassing all risk control systems.
SBF told us to do it, so we did it.
Hearing this, SBF was probably internally collapsing.
His most trusted technical partner actually revealed all technical details, just like broadcasting the surveillance video of the crime scene directly to the jury.
Caroline's lethal blow: the betrayal of an ex-girlfriend was really ruthless!
In court, Caroline not only detailed how SBF transferred $14 billion of client funds but also revealed various insider information.
"SBF told me he calculated he had a 5% chance of becoming the President of the United States." (Jury: Is this person out of his mind?)
"His messy appearance is actually a carefully designed persona, including telling reporters that he drives a Toyota Corolla as a public relations strategy." (Jury: Even the persona is fake?)
The most ruthless thing is that Caroline said: "When FTX went bankrupt, I was on vacation in Japan."
I told SBF that this was the best mood I've been in all year because I finally didn't have to lie anymore.
This statement was like stabbing SBF in the heart! Your ex-girlfriend told the whole world that breaking up with you was happier than winning the lottery.
Nishad Singh's "stream of consciousness": This Indian-American engineering supervisor is even more stunning; he detailed in court how SBF spent other people's money.
- $1 billion investment in Bitcoin mining companies
- $500 million investment in AI company Anthropic
- $200 million investment in the mysterious K5 company (just to have dinner with Hollywood stars)
- $10 million thrown at a politician's doomed campaign
- $160 million for various "charity" projects
After hearing this stream of financial statements, the jury probably wanted to ask: Is this spending money or tossing money?
Chapter Nine: SBF's Last Bet—The "Deadly Question" of Proving Innocence
Faced with a mountain of evidence and the collective betrayal of former comrades, a normal person would have pleaded guilty and begged for mercy long ago.
But SBF is after all a gambler, and he chose the riskiest strategy: to testify in court himself!
This decision is simply a "deadly question".
Statistics show that the probability of defendants successfully self-justifying in US criminal cases is less than 1%, basically equivalent to winning the lottery. But SBF wanted to bet on that 1%.
What was the result? The scene was once very chaotic.
Under the prosecutor's questioning, SBF said "I don't remember" 140 times, almost forgetting once per minute.
The jury laughed: Are you senile or just playing dumb?
Even funnier, SBF tried to push all the responsibility onto Caroline: "It's all her fault for not hedging well!" When this was said, even his own lawyer wanted to hit the wall: Dude, are you pleading or seeking death?
The prosecutor summed up in the closing statement very succinctly: "This is fraud, plain and simple. The defendant forgot 140 times, but the jury's eyes are sharp."
Sure enough, the jury only took 4 hours to reach a verdict: guilty on all 7 counts!
When the verdict was announced, SBF, who had been stubborn, finally broke down and cried in court. That moment, he probably realized: this time he really messed up.
Chapter Ten: The "Mathematical Problem" of 25 Years in Prison
On March 28, 2024, the judge announced SBF's final sentence: 25 years in prison, forfeiture of $11 billion in assets.
The result is quite interesting: it is heavier than the 6.5 years SBF's lawyer fought for, but significantly lighter than the 40-50 years the prosecutor requested. The judge's logic is clear: you indeed did bad things, but it's not to the point of a death sentence.
The judge stated plainly during the sentencing: "Although SBF has been convicted, he still poses a risk of re-harming society. This risk is not trivial."
Translated means: this person will continue to cause trouble and must be locked up.
The judge also specifically refuted SBF's claim that "clients did not suffer losses": "This is complete nonsense! You are lying in court!"
Hearing this, SBF probably thought to himself: I'm already like this, can't I comfort myself a bit?
Epilogue: A Story About Probability
Looking back at SBF's entire life, it is simply a massive "coin toss" game.
He bet that cryptocurrency would take off—won;
He bet that arbitrage trading could make big money—won;
He bet that FTX could become the industry leader—won;
He bet that using client funds for investment wouldn't be discovered—lost;
He bet that CZ wouldn't really sell FTT—lost;
He bet he could convince the jury in court—lost.
As a math genius, SBF should know: flipping a coin continuously will eventually show tails. But the characteristic of a gambler is that when they win, they think they are a genius, and when they lose, they want to recover.
The most ironic thing is that while SBF was in jail, Bitcoin reached a new high, and the entire cryptocurrency market re-entered a bull market.
If he had been a little more restrained back then, he might really have become the "king of cryptocurrency". But history has no ifs; the fate of a gambler is: can win, cannot lose.
SBF uses his life to tell us a truth: no matter how smart a person is, once greed clouds their judgment, they can become the most foolish gambler.
His rollercoaster life from genius boy to emperor of the crypto world to prisoner is perhaps the best warning to all speculators:
When you think you can control probability, probability is quietly controlling you.
While FTX's clients lost everything, the good news is that the bankruptcy liquidation showed that the remaining assets were enough to pay off all debts. This is probably the only consolation in this tragic story.
As for what the cryptocurrency world will look like when SBF is released from prison in 25 years? That's another probability game.
[End of full text]
Note: This article is purely for entertainment and should not be considered investment advice. Remember: investing has risks, and gambling destroys lives. SBF has proven this with his own experience.
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