This story may sound familiar:
A brash young man with a blue-chip education spends a few years as a trader before starting a crypto exchange and quickly becoming a billionaire.
He’s on TV a lot, slays on Twitter, and emerges as the face of the insurgent industry—the kind of entrepreneurial rebel you can’t help but pay attention to, even if you aren’t a bitcoin person. The young man is the acknowledged crypto king. Then, maybe on account of hubris, he starts to make mistakes. Even though he lives abroad, U.S. law enforcement takes notice. An indictment drops. He negotiates the terms of his return to the States and surrenders to federal authorities, facing multiple felony counts. Neither he nor the crypto industry will ever be the same.
This is not just the arc of Sam Bankman-Fried. It’s also that of Arthur Hayes, who appeared on the crypto scene before SBF, got sidelined, and is now poised to return to it. The parallels are all the more remarkable because so much else in their lives is different. Where Bankman-Fried was a white kid from an elite echelon of society, Hayes was a Black kid from the Rust Belt. Where Bankman-Fried is a zhlub who looks like he logs 20 hours a day at a computer, Hayes is impossibly chiseled and handsome. Where Bankman-Fried was tagged for success his entire life, Hayes created his fortune almost as an act of will, surprising pretty much everyone but himself. In 2014, when Hayes was setting up the exchange known as Bitmex, there were no reverent venture capitalists salivating over his vibe or speculating that he would be history’s first trillionaire. He slept on a friend’s couch for months to save money during a period when the whole gambit looked like a failure.
この記事は New York magazine の February 27 - March 12, 2023 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、8,500 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です ? サインイン
この記事は New York magazine の February 27 - March 12, 2023 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、8,500 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です? サインイン
Reality Check
Joseph O'Neill's realist novel embodies the best and worst of the genre.
An Atlas Who Can't Carry
J.Lo's AI-friendly flick flattens its own world.
Billie Doesn't Have to Do It All
The singer's gleefully disorienting third album doesn't hit every note it reaches for.
A Hollywood Family's Grudges
In Griffin Dunne's memoir, The Friday Afternoon Club-about growing up the son of Dominick Dunne and the nephew of John Gregory Dunne and Joan Didion-both acid and names are dropped.
Quite the Tomato
A summer appetizer from a seriously ambitious restaurant.
This Cooking Can't Be Pinned Down
Theodora's menu is all over the map. That's what makes it great.
Answered Prayers
Brooklynites Cristiana Peña and Nick Porter had a dream to live in an old church upstate.
INDUSTRY Goes for Broke
With a new Sunday-night time slot and Game of Thrones's Kit Harington co-starring, can this buzzy GEN-Z FINANCE DRAMA finally break out?
THE SECRET SAUCE
As Marcus on THE BEAR, LIONEL BOYCE is the guy everyone wants to be around. He's having that effect on Hollywood too.
The Love Machine
LOVE IS BLIND creator CHRIS COELEN drops a new group of singles into his strange experiment-and wrestles with all the lawsuits against the series.