FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried has disappeared from the Bloomberg Billionaires Index after his estimated personal fortune dropped about 94% in a single day to $991.5 million.
The lower figure, which removes Bankman-Fried's billionaire status, comes as the FTX exchange's native token, FTT, plunged more than 83% to a low of $2.67 from a daily high of $20.47. Because a major portion of SBF's wealth is linked to his business activities with FTX and Alameda Research, a decrease in the price of FTT tokens would have a direct impact on his personal wealth.
Bankman-Fried was believed to be worth $15.2 billion prior to his company's financial crunch, but according to Bloomberg, $14.6 billion was lost overnight.
Concerns about the Bahamas-based exchange's purported insolvency, which resulted in a halt in withdrawals and a freefall in the price of FTX's native token, led Binance CEO Changpeng "CZ" Zhao to declare on Tuesday that he had signed a provisional deal to acquire FTX.
The FTX CEO responded by tweeting, "FTX is fine. Assets are fine." early on Monday morning.
Bankman-Fried became one of the darlings of the cryptocurrency business as a result of his meteoric rise to financial success, relative youth, and eccentric personality-including his claimed propensity for sleeping on a beanbag at his workplace.
Bankman-Fried previously served as CEO of Alameda but promoted traders Caroline Ellison and Sam Trabucco to co-CEOs in August 2021 so he could focus on FTX. Trabucco stepped away as CEO of the firm in August, leaving Ellison as the sole chief.
Bankman-Fried, a self-described "effective altruist," promised earlier this year to donate the majority of his fortune, which was valued at $21 billion at the time, to charity. He also stated that he will spend up to $1 billion to promote political candidates that are consistent with his larger aim of preparing for future pandemics.
As of writing, the FTT token has slightly rebounded, trading up 83% from its daily low of $4.77. Some of Bankman-still-significant Fried's multi-million fortunes are believed to include holdings in Voyager Digital, Robinhood, Alameda Research, and BlockFi.
Despite investing almost $40 million in the run-up to the midterm elections, Bankman-Fried eventually reneged on his pledge, calling it "a dumb quote."
The Sam Bankman-Fried business is the greatest donor from the crypto industry, according to a Wall Street Journal report, and FTX is the third largest contributor for the 2022 election. The CEO of FTX recently declared that he was actively engaged in advocacy work on behalf of the crypto ecosystem.
