The shocking story of how a crypto billionaire crashed to earth

SAM BANKMAN-FRIED was just 24 when he delivered what looked to be the most profitable day in history for his employers, Jane Street Capital

- Simon Hunt

He had devised an intricate system to predict electoral college votes in different states in the 2016 US election faster than they were called on CNN. He nailed it, but the next morning, everything changed. The market rallied on the back of a Trump victory. Jane Street had bet the other way. They lost $300 million. Bankman-Fried feared the worst. He didn’t receive so much as a slap on the wrist.

Yet the next time his big judgement calls went south, Bankman-Fried would not find it so easy to get off the hook.

In November 2022, FTX, a digital currency exchange he had set up, collapsed in a matter of days after it suffered billions of dollars in customer withdrawals, sending shockwaves through the crypto world. The entrepreneur, who seemed to only ever wear the same wrinkled T-shirt and cargo shorts, went from being the world’s richest man under 30 (worth $22.5 billion) to being under house arrest in his parents’ home, with a tracking bracelet clamped around his ankle. His trial for fraud and money laundering began this week. He denies the charges.

To make sense of all this, with perfect timing, comes Michael Lewis, the author of Moneyball and The Big Short, who was already working on a book about Bankman-Fried prior to FTX’s collapse. Going Infinite is his superbly detailed picture of the man behind it.