SAM BANKMAN-FRIED

$8.7 billion • U.S.

An MIT grad and former Wall Street trader, Bankman-Fried, 29, is the founder and CEO of quantitative crypto trading firm Alameda, which manages $32 billion in Bitcoin and other major cryptocurrencies as well as their derivatives. He also founded Hong Kong–based crypto exchange FTX, which achieved unicorn status in January 2020, less than a year after its May 2019 launch. The exchange will soon replace American Airlines as the naming-rights sponsor of the home arena of the NBA’s Miami Heat. The vast majority of Bankman-Fried’s wealth is in FTX’s equity and FTT tokens, the native cryptocurrency of FTX. In 2020, he gave $5 million to a pro-Biden super PAC, making him one of the president’s biggest donors.