70 Thought-provoking Sam Bankman-Fried Quotes (FTX)

Top 10 Most Famous Sam Bankman-Fried Quotes (BEST)

“Clearly, I made a lot of mistakes or things I would give anything to be able to do over again. I didn’t ever try to commit fraud on anyone. I was shocked by what happened this month. And you know reconstructing it were there things I wish I had done differently.”
Sam Bankman-Fried

I didn’t steal funds, and I certainly didn’t stash billions away. Nearly all of my assets were and still are utilizable to backstop FTX customers. — I didn’t steal funds, and I certainly didn’t stash billions away. Nearly all of my **assets** were and still are utilizable to backstop FTX customers.

You pretty quickly run out of really effective ways to make yourself happier by spending money. — You pretty quickly run out of really **effective** ways to make yourself **happier** by spending **money**.

“I had a duty to all of our stakeholders, to our customers, to our creditors. I had a duty to our employees, to our investors and to the regulators of the world, to do right by them, to make sure that the right things happened at the company, and clearly I didn’t do a good job of that.”
Sam Bankman-Fried

Sometimes the obvious product is the right one. Other times it’s the lazy one.

I think I got a little cocky — I mean, more than a little bit.

“I didn’t ever try to commit fraud on anyone. I was excited about the prospects of FTX a month ago. I saw it as a thriving growing business. I was shocked by what happened this month.”
Sam Bankman-Fried

The word risk means different things to different people. Some people say risk. Some people say opportunity. — The word **risk** means different things to different people. Some people say risk. Some people say **opportunity**.

A lot of what we ended up doing and focusing on was a distraction, to some extent, from one unbelievably important area that we completely failed on and that was risk. — A lot of what we ended up doing and **focusing** on was a distraction, to some extent, from one unbelievably important area that we completely failed on and that was risk.

“We lost track of a really important part of the business and of the product. And so, there absolutely were management failures, huge management failures, like their responsibility for that there were oversight, failures, transparency, failures, reporting.”
Sam Bankman-Fried

15 Thought-Provoking Sam Bankman-Fried Quotes About Crypto

“In crypto, exchanges handle basically the entire infrastructure. It’s every single part of a trade put together except for the buyer and seller, whereas in traditional finance, it’s all handled by like 12 different firms.”
Sam Bankman-Fried

I didn't know anything about crypto when I first got involved. I barely knew what a blockchain was. — I didn’t know anything about crypto when I first got involved. I barely knew what a **blockchain** was.

There are tons and tons of people who have interest in trading crypto and also have interest in trading stocks.

“It’s a bit of a double-edged sword. So there are some exceptions to this, but with most of the exchanges, a general consensus is maybe we should just get rid of 100 and 50 and anything above 10X. We would get consumer outcry if we got rid of it, and we’d get very bad press. But it might be the right thing to do.”
Sam Bankman-Fried

There's a wide world out there. We shouldn't think that crypto is going to be the most fertile ground to work in forever. — There’s a wide world out there. We shouldn’t think that crypto is going to be the most fertile ground to work in forever.

If you look at carbon produced per dollar of economic activity, crypto is not a huge outlier.

“We’ve looked into it. The Monetary Authority of Singapore has been one of the most on-the-ball regulators in terms of trying to actually build out a regulatory and licensing framework. That being said, like almost every jurisdiction, Singapore has not ruled out a comprehensive regulatory framework for crypto yet.”
Sam Bankman-Fried

I left Jane Street Capital to start on my own ideas and got into crypto.

I think that the really bearish views on Tether are wrong. I don't think there is any evidence to support them. — I think that the really bearish views on Tether are wrong. I don’t think there is any evidence to support them.

“As we started expanding into more and more demographics, one of those is retail traders, and there are huge amounts of retail influence occurring in the United States. And the other piece is the institution. A lot of US institutions, historically, they’ve not traded any crypto, but that’s starting to change. They all now have mandates for trading crypto somehow sometime.”
Sam Bankman-Fried

“In December 2013, I went to a conference in Las Vegas and bumped into Vitalik Buterin, one of the founders of Ethereum. There was one other guy that was quite influential. I was learning Ripple. He came over with a laptop to show me how it works, and in the process, he transferred [$500 of Ripple’s token] XRP to me and said, ‘You can use that to teach the next guy’.”
Sam Bankman-Fried

“We have an open democratic market, and the market will self-correct. Too many people are rushing in. The prices will go too high. And then some guys will want to cash out, to take profit. But nobody really knows. So maybe the price is still too low now. So the market takes care of that.”
Sam Bankman-Fried

“I never view anyone as competition. If I’ve got that mindset, everyone’s the enemy to me, even very different businesses. But I have an abundance mentality. I think most things in this world are not limited resources. Money is not. Business opportunities are not. And the crypto industry is not.”
Sam Bankman-Fried

“By number of Ponzi schemes there are way more in crypto, kinda per capita, than in other places. But by size of actual Ponzi, I’m not sure that it is particularly unusual. It’s just like a ton of extremely small ones.”
Sam Bankman-Fried

“I basically just saw lots of evidence that there’s likely to be really good trading to do in crypto, a really new ecosystem, a ton of customer demand, huge volatility and not enough infrastructure institutions to support it because it had grown so quickly.”
Sam Bankman-Fried

7 Wise Sam Bankman-Fried Quotes

“If you do something to see if it works, and then it doesn’t work, was that a valuable educational experience for you – that you intentionally did in order to learn – or is that a mistake because you did the thing that didn’t work and you wasted money on it? Those are two sides of the same coin.”
Sam Bankman-Fried

Just like an idle software, your brain is less efficient after a long break.

There are a lot of ways to do good in the world.

Good is good however it comes. And in the end, my goal is just to figure out how I can have the most impact on the world whatever that means.

I want to be in a position where when we work with people, we're a little more generous than we have particular reason to be. — I want to be in a position where when we work with people, we’re a little more generous than we have particular reason to be.

Lack of trust is an enormous transaction cost, and I underestimated this when I first got into business. — Lack of **trust** is an enormous transaction cost, and I underestimated this when I first got into business.

12 Sam Bankman-Fried Quotes About FTX

“FTX US remains fully solvent and should be able to return all customers’ funds. FTX International has many billions of dollars of assets, and I am dedicating nearly all of my personal assets to customers.”
Sam Bankman-Fried

It’s ridiculous that FTX US users haven’t been made whole and gotten their funds back yet.

If FTX International were to reboot, there would be a real possibility of customers being made substantially whole.

“Had FTX International been given a few weeks, it could likely have utilized its illiquid assets and equity to raise enough financing to make customers substantially whole.”
Sam Bankman-Fried

FTX International was a non-US exchange. It was run outside the US, regulated outside the US, incorporated outside the US, and took non-US customers.

Ideally, I would want FTX to become the biggest source of financial transactions in the world.

“I want FTX to be a place where you can do anything you want with your next dollar. You can buy bitcoin. You can send money in whatever currency to any friend anywhere in the world. You can buy a banana. You can do anything you want with your money from inside FTX.”
Sam Bankman-Fried

I don't think running a blockchain social media network is a great fit for FTX, but we'd be super happy to help technologically with that. — I don’t think **running** a blockchain social media network is a great fit for FTX, but we’d be super happy to help **technologically** with that.

The single thing I'm most worried about for FTX is that we become slow and dysfunctional. — The single thing I’m most worried about for FTX is that we become slow and dysfunctional.

We're going to be doing what we can to try to get news about FTX out there and get more eyeballs on it. — We’re going to be doing what we can to try to get news about FTX out there and get more eyeballs on it.

When we think about what FTX represents, we want to be the best product that is out there.

Look, I screwed up. I was the CEO of FTX. I was responsible ultimately for doing the right things and I mean, we didn't. We messed up big. — Look, I screwed up. I was the CEO of FTX. I was responsible ultimately for doing the right things and I mean, we didn’t. We messed up big.

2 Sam Bankman-Fried Quotes About Alameda

“As Alameda became illiquid, FTX International did as well, because Alameda had a margin position open on FTX; and the run on the bank turned that illiquidity into insolvency.”
Sam Bankman-Fried

I have a lot more to say–about why Alameda failed to hedge, what happened with FTX US, what led to the Chapter 11 process, S&C, and more. But at least this is a start.

3 Sam Bankman-Fried Quotes on Governance

“There have been a lot of times when I have been a bigger supporter of Democratic candidates than Republican candidates. That’s not – that’s not an immovable fact about the world.”
Sam Bankman-Fried

There's huge amounts of good that can be done by a government that works constructively versus a zero-sum vision of government. — There’s huge amounts of good that can be done by a government that works constructively versus a zero-sum **vision** of government.

“We’re really excited to support candidates who are making a point of putting pandemic prevention as one of their core policy positions and promising to fight for getting enough air time, frankly, to help the United States get prepared.”
Sam Bankman-Fried

2 Sam Bankman-Fried Quotes About Burn-out

I think it's important that people push themselves to achieve what they can but not push themselves beyond that point, to the point where they are just burning out. — I think it’s important that people push themselves to achieve what they can but not push themselves beyond that point, to the point where they are just burning out.

When I feel burned out, usually that means I have to take a night off or get a 10-hour sleep for a night to recover. — When I feel burned out, usually that means I have to take a night off or get a 10-hour **sleep** for a night to recover.

3 Sam Bankman-Fried Quotes on Reading Books

I would never read a book. — I would never **read** a book.

I'm very skeptical of books. — I’m very skeptical of **books**.

I don't want to say no book is ever worth reading, but I actually do believe something pretty close to that. — I don’t want to say no book is ever worth reading, but I actually do **believe** something pretty close to that.

2 Sam Bankman-Fried Quotes About the Pandemic

“My donations were mostly for pandemic prevention. This was not looking at donating to one party to beat the other one in the general elections. Not only was it on both sides, but even within each side, it was between two candidates in the same party and you’re looking at pandemic policy.”
Sam Bankman-Fried

Handling covid, we made a lot of big mistakes, and it led to tens of trillions of dollars of economic damage and millions of lives lost. Much of that was preventable.

14 Sam Bankman-Fried Quotes That Will Make You Think

“I have, for instance, offered to contribute nearly all of my personal shares in Robinhood to customers–or 100%, if the Chapter 11 team would honor my D&O legal expense indemnification.”
Sam Bankman-Fried

Many of my personal passwords are still being held by the Chapter 11 team–to say nothing about data.

“The moment that a bunch of brokers, including Robinhood, restricted buying of Gamestop, like literally that hour hundreds of millions of dollars flowed into dogecoin. And it was just a really strong signal that it’s the same people.”
Sam Bankman-Fried