Sam Bankman-Fried comes clean on regulation, ethics
- Emily Peck, author of Axios Markets
Sam Bankman-Fried testifies during a hearing before the House Financial Services Committee last year. Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images
In a remarkable interview conducted over Twitter DMs, disgraced former crypto CEO Sam Bankman-Fried distanced himself from the very positions he was best known for, including his support for regulation and effective altruism.
Why it matters: The interview, conducted by Vox's Kelsey Piper, is just the latest stunner in Bankman-Fried's fast fall from grace.
- Only a few weeks ago, he was the crypto billionaire known for appearing before Congress and asking for sensible regulation of his industry.
Details: When asked if the stuff he said about regulations was "pretty much just PR," Bankman-Fried replied, "yeah just PR."
- "f*ck regulators," he said.
Between the lines: Bankman-Fried was one of the world's foremost effective altruists — dedicated to the proposition that the most ethical way to live was to make billions of dollars and give them away philanthropically.
- Now, asked about his previous stance, he replied: "man, all the dumb shit I said. It's not true, not really." He agreed with Piper that his "ethics stuff" was "mostly a front."
- It's a "dumb game we woke westerners play where we say all the right shibboleths and so everyone likes us," he said.
Go Deeper: Read the whole interview at Vox.