30-year-old wonderkid crashes down to earth

SCRUFFY, with a mop of curly black hair, Sam Bankman-Fried has had a week to forget.

The 30-year-old, known for wearing shorts, T-shirts and hoodies, is the founder of FTX, who at his peak was understood to be worth £22bn.

Better known by his initials SBF, he was for many of his followers the ultimate crypto champion.

FTX forged prestigious partnerships with the likes of supermodel Gisele Bundchen ( above, with SBF). He attended the Massachusetts

Institute of Technology. After a stint at a Wall Street trading firm he set up FTX in 2019.

But he also epitomises an industry that failed to grow up and mature. He lives with ten friends in a penthouse in Nassau, the capital of the Bahamas, where FTX also has its head office and where taxes are almost nonexistent.

According to co-workers he sleeps on a bean bag next to his desk and worked so hard in the early days of the company’s foundation that he rarely showered.