The rise and fall of Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) – the former CEO of crypto exchange FTX – has fascinated many in the crypto scene. After initially building one of the largest trading platforms for the crypto sector and also gaining fame as the founder of the trading company Alameda Research, the American entrepreneur quickly fell out of favor. He was found guilty on seven counts and was sentenced to life in prison ( we reported ). However, his story does not end there, as the crypto expert is still making waves in the world of digital currencies today.
SBF recommends investing in Solana
Currently, Sam Bankman-Fried remains incarcerated in a prison in Brooklyn, New York City. On the one hand, he continues to work on his case there, but on the other hand, he doesn’t seem to be able to keep his hands off the crypto world. The New York Times reported that the former FTX CEO, for example, advises his prison guards and gives them tips and tricks for investing their assets. According to the newspaper, he currently recommends buying the SOL token. In his opinion, the Solana forecast for the future looks extremely bullish. The New York Times explains in its article:
Since last summer, he has been housed at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, where he has spent much of his time working on the case, according to a person familiar with the matter. Mr. Bankman-Fried also shared crypto market tips with the guards, the person said, recommending investing in the digital coin Solana.”
He remains true to his line, because his now bankrupt and dissolved crypto exchange FTX was not only built on the Solana ecosystem, but was also considered one of the largest investors in the crypto project. The Solana price fell correspondingly sharply after the bankruptcy of FTX, which kept the price at a low point for almost a whole year. However, since autumn 2023, the SOL token has been able to recover and experience significant price changes.
One of the main reasons why Solana has been able to increase in value so quickly and strongly in recent months is likely due to the fact that various meme coins on the Solana blockchain – such as Bonk or Dogwifhat (WIF) – have been able to attract many investors. Even the crypto smartphone Saga 1 quickly sold out after a slow start because it airdropped the meme tokens. Even the new Saga Phone 2 could be a complete success.
Sam Bankman-Fried wants to have the punishment significantly reduced
In addition to continuing to show a strong interest in the crypto scene and Solana in particular, SBF is working closely with his lawyers to significantly reduce his sentence. He was initially sentenced by the judges to a prison sentence of 110 years, but would like to have this reduced significantly – to a period of 5 to 6.5 years. His defense was recently strengthened after SBF brought lawyer Marc Mukasey onto its team. However, it is still unclear how realistic such a significant reduction in his sentence is.
The reason why Sam Bankman-Fried continues to recommend the cryptocurrency Solana (SOL) may be due to FTX’s remaining holdings. FTX and Alameda Research are said to hold a total of 60 million SOL tokens (currently worth around $6.7 billion), which will only be gradually unlocked in the coming years. SBF and its former team could benefit from the fact that the Solana price remains at a high level or even rises further.
This is not unlikely, at least at the moment, as the SOL token gained 8.74% in the last week alone. Thus, at the time of publishing this article, Solana is trading at a price of 111.62.
