One of President Joe Biden’s biggest campaign backers in the 2020 presidential election has been grabbing the limelight in the mainstream media – as Sam Bankman-Fried (28), the CEO of the crypto derivatives platform FTX, continues to “baffle American political observers” and draw attention with an estimated net worth of USD 10bn.
That sum is “mostly illiquid” and is based on Bankman-Fried’s own estimates, per an interview from the New York Magazine.
But although Bankman-Fried, who reportedly shares an apartment with roommates, was the second-highest Biden donor, handing over in excess of USD 5m to the former candidate’s election coffers, the FTX chief claimed that he is not planning on becoming a long-term political donor.
The media outlet wrote that “it’s entirely possible that he won’t give money to any politicians in 2024, stating that should “two basically rational centrists” face-off at the next presidential election, he would hold back on making a donation.
Bankman-Fried said,
“If someone and their twin are running against each other, whatever, may the best twin win. Obviously, it’s going to depend a lot on the details.”
A long-term Democratic Party supporter, Bankman-Fried said he campaigned in the run-up to the 2016 election, but – thanks to his wealth – was “in a position to do a lot more than knock on doors” in 2020.
Instead, the media outlet explained that Bankman-Fried “gave more than USD 5 million to Biden and groups supporting him,” helping “fuel a nine-figure, eleventh-hour blitz of TV advertising.”
But an urge for stability seems to have influenced the FTX supremo’s decision-making more than anything else.
The donation “was motivated less by specific issues” than by the Biden and his team’s “generic stability and decision-making process,” Bankman-Fried said.
And although only one other person contributed more than Bankman-Fried to the Biden campaign, this “didn’t bring any particular perks, and the FTX boss said that he has never spoken to Biden, although he claimed he has a lot to say to the President.
Only former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg gave more to the Biden campaign, stumping up a cool USD 56m to line the now-President’s election warchest.
Bankman-Fried explained,
“There are a lot of things I could talk [President Biden’s] ear off about, but I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t give a shit.”
FTX waded into the centuries-old rivalry between two of the oldest and most prestigious universities in the world late last year, when it backed an Oxford versus Cambridge crypto trading showdown.
Forbes, meanwhile, estimated Bankman-Fried’s wealth at USD 4.5bn on a recent list of 11 “billionaires cashing in on bitcoin (BTC)’s wild rise,” placing him second on its list behind only Brian Armstrong, the USD 6.5bn-valued Coinbase CEO.
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