FTX CEO to donate up to $1 billion in US presidential election

Sam Bankman-Fried believes that the incumbent US leader Joe Biden can face off in a rematch with Donald Trump

25.05.2022 - 06:40

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2 min

What’s new? The head of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange Sam Bankman-Fried has revealed that he intends to fund the 2024 US presidential election. The planned budget is between $100 million and $1 billion, Bankman-Fried said on the podcast “What’s Your Problem?” The FTX chief believes that the incumbent President Joe Biden can face off in a rematch with his rival in the last election, Donald Trump.

Podcast with Bankman-Fried

What else has the FTX head said? This is not the first time that Bankman-Fried will be contributing money to politics. He had previously donated $5,2 million to the current President Biden’s election campaign.

Asked about the expected outcome of the election, the FTX chief replied:

“If you’re donating political resources on candidates you’re 99% sure will win, you’re doing something wrong.”

What is known about FTX? It is a centralized cryptocurrency exchange for trading derivatives headquartered in the Bahamas. It was created in 2018 by trader Sam Bankman-Fried and programmer Gary Wang. As of 2022, the platform has more than one million registered users.

What happened before? The head of FTX criticized bitcoin as a means of payment. He believes that the main drawbacks of the first cryptocurrency are inefficiency and high environmental costs.

Also, Emergent Fidelity Technologies, a company owned by the head of FTX, bought a 7,6% stake in the online broker Robinhood, with a total value of $648,29 million. Robinhood’s shares rose by 30% following the purchase.

In March, FTX launched a $1 billion charity fund. In April, Sam Bankman-Fried reported that he was going to spend another $1 billion on charity. He cited the fight against the coronavirus pandemic as a top priority.

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