The case of Sam Bankman-Fried, who was sentenced on March 28, 2024, to 25 years in prison, is emblematic of the fast-paced world of cryptocurrency, in which vast sums of money can be made or lost in the blink of an eye.
In early November 2022, the crypto exchange FTX was valued at more than US$30 billion. By the middle of that month, FTX was in bankruptcy proceedings.
And less than a year later, on Nov. 3, 2023, its founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, was found guilty of seven counts of money laundering and fraud, following a trial that featured less than a month of testimony and only about four hours of jury deliberation.
D. Brian Blank and Brandy Hadley are professors who study finance, executives, corporate governance and financial technology.