PARIS, Feb 13, 2022 (BSS/AFP) - Sam Bankman-Fried donned a suit and tie this
week, abandoning his preferred hoodie and dark T-shirt for a hearing before
US Senators.

The lawmakers had summoned the 29-year-old multi-billionaire on Wednesday to
discuss the regulation of digital assets in his capacity as co-founder and
CEO of the cryptocurrency exchange platform FTX.

   Less than three years after its founding, the company was just valued at
$32 billion, a capitalization that puts it close to giants Coinbase and
Binance.

   The personal fortune of Bankman-Fried, a vegan who sleeps four hours per
night and who has become a public face of crypto money, is estimated at
nearly $25 billion by Forbes magazine -- placing him among the top 70 richest
people on the planet.

   "It's been pretty bipartisan," the young boss told AFP of the hearing. "A
lot of Senators are really interested in learning more about the space and
learning how there can be more federal oversight."

   - From Hong Kong to the Bahamas -

   Son of Stanford Law School professors and a graduate of the elite
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Bankman-Fried worked as a broker
on Wall Street before turning to cryptocurrencies in 2017.

   He observed large variations in price between the online platforms where
people can buy and sell crypto money and took advantage of the gaps by buying
and selling digital assets at very high frequency.

   The difference in prices in 2018 was 5-25 percent between American and
Japanese exchanges, he said, which meant that simply by moving assets from
one platform to another he could make money.

   "There was enormous demand for crypto coming out of Japan, and not nearly
as many liquidity providers," he added.

   The young entrepreneur created a cryptocurrency investment fund, Alameda
Research, moved to Hong Kong and then launched FTX with Gary Wang, who is now
the platform's chief technology officer.

   Bankman-Fried now lives in the Bahamas, where taxes are almost nil, and
the platform has its headquarters in the Caribbean nation too.

   He defends his choice of location by the fact that it is "one of the few
countries that has a comprehensive licensing regime for cryptocurrencies and
cryptocurrency exchanges."

   In media appearances and on Twitter, where he goes by SBF, Bankman-Fried
has been a vocal advocate for smoother access to the crypto market for the
general public, particularly in the United States.

   "It would be healthy for everyone involved if there was a regulatory
pathway to getting licensed and bringing federal oversight," he said.

   A subsidiary for American clients, FTX US, opened in 2020.

   The success of FTX has enabled the platform to forge prestigious
partnerships, including with the newly retired American football legend Tom
Brady and his wife, the Brazilian ex-model Gisele Bundchen.

   The company will also run an ad during the American football finale Super
Bowl on Sunday, promising to give away a number of bitcoins that will be
determined by what time the commercial airs.

   - 'Effective altruism' -

   Bankman-Fried, who said he maintains a spartan lifestyle, identifies with
the beliefs of "effective altruism," a movement which aims to use careful
analysis to figure out how to use one's resources to help others the most.

   "It's not just like, how do you do some good with your life, but if you
want to do as much good as possible what do you focus on," said Bankman-
Fried, who has pledged to give away almost all of the wealth he will have
made.

   He estimates that he has already donated between $50-100 million to causes
such as the fight for animal welfare, combatting neglected tropical diseases
and reducing global warming.

   Cryptocurrencies have faced withering criticism over the argument they
contribute to Earth's catastrophic warming because their extraction process
requires so much electricity, which can come from fossil fuels.

   Bankman-Fried said he believes the process of creating the cryptocurrency
as well as the transactions will increasingly be done using renewable energy.

   Aware of the staggering sums of money he's raising, Bankman-Fried, who was
among the largest donors to US President Joe Biden's 2020 campaign, has no
problem with the amounts being made public.

   "If you're trying to have a lot of positive impact in the world, it's
probably going to be things that people end up seeing," he added.