Sam Bankman-Fried founded the cryptocurrency exchange FTX in 2019 and built it into a $32 billion empire within three years, making him one of the richest people in the world before turning 30. By November 2022, that empire had collapsed, and an estimated $26.5 billion fortune evaporated within days.
Bankman-Fried is now serving a 25-year federal sentence for fraud and conspiracy, with his case still moving in 2026: a federal appeals court just ruled on his conviction, and a presidential pardon request sits pending in Washington.
Who Is Sam Bankman-Fried?
According to Forbes, Samuel Bankman-Fried is the son of two Stanford Law School professors. He earned a bachelor’s degree in physics from MIT in 2014, then started his career at Jane Street Capital, a proprietary trading firm.
At MIT, Bankman-Fried became drawn to effective altruism, the idea of earning as much as possible in order to give it away to high-impact causes. He left Jane Street in 2017 to pursue bitcoin arbitrage trades between Asian and U.S. markets, telling CNBC the trade sometimes made close to a million dollars a day, the kind of price-gap trading covered in our guide on how Bitcoin works. That trade became the seed of Alameda Research, which he cofounded later that year.
Sam Bankman-Fried’s Career and Contributions
Bankman-Fried cofounded Alameda Research in 2017. In 2019, he and Gary Wang launched FTX, a derivatives exchange combining trading, brokerage, and market-making on one platform. CoinDesk reported that FTX raised $900 million in July 2021 at an $18 billion valuation, with SoftBank and Coinbase Ventures among the investors, and the exchange grew into one of the largest crypto derivatives platforms by volume.
He also built a venture portfolio Forbes later detailed as notable today mainly for what he gave up: $500 million into Anthropic, about 60 million SOL tokens, and $648 million for a Robinhood stake.
In November 2022, Binance founder Changpeng Zhao moved to liquidate FTX’s FTT token, triggering a run on deposits FTX could not cover. FTX and Alameda filed for bankruptcy days later, and Bankman-Fried was arrested the following month. A jury convicted him on all seven counts in November 2023, and Judge Kaplan sentenced him in March 2024 to 25 years, ordering forfeiture of more than $11 billion.
His case has stayed active through 2026. In February, his mother, retired Stanford law professor Barbara Fried, filed a pro se retrial motion on his behalf, arguing that new witness testimony could undercut the case against him. Two months later, Bankman-Fried withdrew it himself, telling the court he doubted he would get a fair hearing from the same proceedings.
He then turned to a different avenue. In June, he formally applied for a presidential pardon, a request the Justice Department’s Office of the Pardon Attorney still lists as pending.Days after that filing, a three-judge panel dealt him a setback: the Second Circuit upheld his conviction and sentence, calling the government’s evidence “conservatively stated, robust.” His lawyers can still ask the full appeals court or the Supreme Court to take up the case.
Sam Bankman-Fried’s Views and Positions
Before FTX collapsed, Bankman-Fried was one of the most visible faces of effective altruism, treating Alameda and FTX as engines for funding causes he considered high-impact. Since his conviction, he has kept arguing the prosecution was unjust, pointing to bankruptcy repayments to FTX customers as evidence the exchange had never been insolvent.
That defense has carried into his search for clemency. Asked directly, in a June 8, 2026 interview from prison reported by CoinDesk, whether he wanted a pardon from the White House, Bankman-Fried did not hesitate: “Absolutely.”
Sam Bankman-Fried’s Net Worth in 2026
According to Forbes, Bankman-Fried’s net worth in 2026 stands at $0. That figure has held since March 2024, when Judge Kaplan ordered forfeiture of more than $11 billion in cash, securities, and venture stakes. Bankman-Fried himself once told Forbes his ownership stood at around 90% of Alameda Research and about half of FTX, both of which are now controlled by the bankruptcy estate.
Forbes calculated in May 2026 that his early stakes in Anthropic, Cursor, Solana, and Robinhood would be worth close to $100 billion today had the portfolio never been sold off by bankruptcy administrators. None of that belongs to Bankman-Fried, since the estate liquidated those holdings years ago for creditor repayment.
Any figure online suggesting he is secretly worth billions describes a counterfactual world, not his actual finances. No verified figure places his net worth above $0, and future income is subject to seizure until the $11 billion judgment is satisfied.
Sam Bankman-Fried in the News
The most notable recent development came on June 12, 2026, when a three-judge Second Circuit panel in Manhattan unanimously upheld Bankman-Fried’s fraud conviction and sentence. Circuit Judge Barrington Parker rejected his claim that Judge Kaplan had unfairly limited his trial testimony, writing that prosecutors had presented an overwhelming case.
His pardon application remains pending, and President Trump said in a January 2026 interview that he did not intend to grant clemency, though he has pardoned other crypto figures, including former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao.
Frequently Asked Questions
Need a refresher on Sam Bankman-Fried? Here are the questions readers most often ask about the FTX founder.
Who is Sam Bankman-Fried?
Sam Bankman-Fried founded FTX in 2019 and Alameda Research in 2017, building FTX into one of the world’s largest crypto exchanges before its 2022 collapse. He now serves a 25-year federal sentence for fraud and conspiracy.
What is Sam Bankman-Fried’s net worth in 2026?
His net worth is $0, per Forbes. A March 2024 forfeiture order moved his former venture stakes and crypto holdings to the FTX bankruptcy estate.
What did Sam Bankman-Fried found?
Alameda Research in 2017, and FTX with Gary Wang in 2019, growing it into one of crypto’s largest exchanges before it collapsed.
Is Sam Bankman-Fried still in prison in 2026?
Yes, serving a 25-year sentence after his November 2023 conviction, upheld by a federal appeals court on June 12, 2026.
Will Sam Bankman-Fried get a pardon?
Unclear. His June 2026 pardon application is pending, though Trump said in January 2026 he did not intend to grant clemency.
Did FTX customers get their money back?
The bankruptcy estate says customers are being repaid based on their November 2022 holdings value, with some classes recovering over 100%, though in 2022 dollars.
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