"What the actual fuck, we can't even use a pillow? Can't we even sleep?"
On December 13, 2022, FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was officially arrested by Bahamian police. Counting from that day, it has been 720 days since SBF went to prison, exactly two years.
"I miss my teddy pillow, named Manfred," SBF wrote in his diary. This teddy bear named Manfred accounts for the longest content in his first three diary chapters, aside from describing his fellow inmates, after experiencing a confiscation of $11 billion in assets and 25 years in prison.
Exterior view of the prison where SBF is located: MDC Brooklyn, New York.
Outside the prison, another very busy person is SBF's father, who, aside from preparing for SBF's appeals legally, has also hired a (Forbes) writer Walter Pavlo as SBF's advisor, focusing on writing about prison topics.
According to an informed broker, SBF's autobiography may bring millions in advance payments for the publisher. "The motivation for SBF to seek a publisher for his diary is still unclear. Clearly, it is not for money."
Because according to the confiscation policy, all of SBF's assets and potential income, including any revenue from the publication of his memoirs, will be used to repay his debts and compensate the victims of his fraud. This means that even if the publication of the memoir could bring in a large income, that money will go directly to compensating those who suffered economic losses due to FTX's bankruptcy.
In SBF's eyes, all fellow inmates are gorillas.
"His writing seems as if he is Jane Goodall," said someone who read the first three chapters of SBF's diary. I think this analogy is very vivid. This biologist is the world's most famous chimpanzee research expert, and her studies on chimpanzee social and family interactions have lasted 60 years.
I found a sentence written by Jane Goodall: "In the first ten years of research, I believed that chimpanzees were friendlier than humans, until I observed that dominant females would deliberately kill the young of other females in the group to maintain their dominance, even engaging in cannibalism. They, like us, have a dark side to their nature."
Next is SBF's writing, where he seems to observe and study his fellow inmates as if they were "chimpanzees":
"Most people will be assimilated by prison; they will fight over a banana and will use everything they have to exchange for another opportunity to use drugs."
"A drug called Deuce is widely used here, its composition is unrecognizable. I only know that it is smuggled into prison by soaking it into ordinary paper, and those prisoners who use it turn into zombies every night."
"There are two types of people in prison: one type is long-term prisoners who consciously give up hope for life." The other type is the group to which SBF belongs: "How do you resist the system when it has stripped you of your freedom to fight back? How do you remain loyal to your true self when it is seen as such a huge threat to society that you need to be caged until you finally give it up?"
It is said that after experiencing significant events, people go through several psychological stages of change: numbness—disbelief, refusal to accept reality; resentment—blaming others and oneself for not managing the situation well; depression—accepting what has happened, leading to sadness and depression; recovery—overcoming the period of frustration and starting a new life.
Having grown up in a highly educated family, SBF finds his current life extremely shocking; he seems to need more time than average people to process his emotions after significant events. Even after two years in prison, SBF appears still stuck in the first and second phases. His diary entries always portray him as a 'cold observer' of everything around him, expressing that 'he does not belong here.'
On the 720th day of his imprisonment, SBF misses his teddy pillow.
Sleeping in prison is not too good; MDC, this sleepless place, has prisoners' screams and curses echoing even at night, and the lights are always in a dim state 24 hours a day, making it impossible to tell the time, which makes SBF very uncomfortable.
Since he was two years old, SBF has had a stuffed bear named Manfred. This unassuming little bear has witnessed his journey from Stanford to Boston for university, to his career as a trader in New York, and the establishment of Alameda and FTX from Berkeley and Hong Kong to the Bahamas—these are the most important moments in SBF's life.
In this moment of his life when he feels the loneliest, Manfred is his only comfort. "I really miss Manfred so much," he wrote in his diary.
Image source: @LilMoonLambo
In MDC, a comfortable pillow is almost a luxury. SBF tried to use his suit from the court or towels combined with prison clothes as a substitute for a pillow, but these makeshift solutions provided insufficient comfort, "My neck has already started to hurt," he lamented.
Until he exchanged two muffins for a pillow improvised from mattress stuffing and t-shirts by a fellow inmate, this slight improvement made his nights a bit easier.
In prison life, sports betting has become a pastime for many prisoners. One day, a cellmate named Harry shared his betting strategy with SBF: "First bet $100, if you lose, bet $250, if you lose again, bet $600, and so on until you win back all your bets."
SBF wrote with a tone of disdain: "I really can't bear to tell him that this trading strategy is a classic 'gambler's fallacy.'"
Although SBF behaves like an 80-year-old man physically in prison, no one understands 'gambling' better than him in this regard. In prison, he mainly survives on beans and rice, and rice has become 'a form of currency within MDC.' SBF even joked, "Compared to his previous life as a high-frequency trader, the arbitrage opportunities in prison are much better." He is finally able to be an arrogant trader again, continuing to look down on everything around him, whether it's the people here or life here.
Arrogant people are more likely to succeed but also more likely to mess things up. This can also be understood from his previous court appearance, where he stood in the witness stand to counter the three star witnesses against him, even when his lawyer and a prosecutor told him that the chances of self-defense were quite low, with very few cases in history where defendants successfully defended themselves. In his 22-year career, he had only seen one defendant successfully self-defend.
But SBF is obstinate and even almost had a falling out with his own lawyer, leading to a chaotic situation.
Christmas 2023, SBF in a photo from MDC prison.
On the other hand, in stark contrast to SBF, is CZ, who has completed a $4.3 billion fine and spent four months in a U.S. prison. In the photos taken during multiple court appearances, he is always seen wearing a neat suit and looking relaxed.
CZ enters and exits the court.
Besides the apology letter written by CZ himself, the judge also received the longest plea letter in history, spanning 43 pages, from CZ's family, friends, and colleagues, presenting a more complete image of CZ to the judge.
Despite the same prison life, CZ and SBF exhibit completely different styles: "This experience has helped me re-evaluate the most important things in life. I miss my children, family, friends, colleagues, and community. I miss other things too, but nothing compares to how strongly I miss people. You will miss food, a comfortable bed, but those things have much less impact on me."
When asked if he made friends in prison, CZ's answer was affirmative, "Yes, you must make friends; it can be very tough if you are isolated." He expressed sympathy for prisoners who serve long sentences for minor offenses and maintains contact with some friends.
CZ has also started working out, which may have been a preparation he began before going to prison to prevent being perceived as having the physique of an '80-year-old man.' More than a month after his release, CZ appeared at the Binance blockchain conference in Dubai, looking better than anyone expected and receiving a warm applause from the audience. That day, international media headlines read, 'The King Is Back.'
If SBF were still around.
When SBF was arrested, the price of BTC was $16,000, while the current price of BTC is $100,000. In the past two years of the crypto industry, SBF has missed too much.
Some say that by judging success or failure, CZ has a much richer life experience than SBF and has displayed greater resilience in the face of adversity. However, when not judging by success or failure, if SBF were still around, the current market environment might be different.
"If SBF hadn't gotten into trouble, the market would definitely be better now." This is a common sentiment among many old investors who experienced the golden era of FTX and SBF.
"For example, the market has dropped sharply in the past two days. If FTX were still operational, retail investors would have more opportunities to make money. The most typical example is FTX's basket of altcoin indices, which allows trading on the entire altcoin index rather than just one altcoin."
However, after FTX collapsed, the product track of this 'altcoin index' remains vacant, and currently, there are no platforms available that can provide similar services.
Not only is there a loss of a trading tool, but the collapse of FTX is also a significant blow to liquidity in the crypto market, causing liquidity in the industry to shrink rapidly. 'The entire industry has at least regressed three years,' is the intuitive feeling of many at that time, including Sun Yuchen.
"SBF and FTX understand the market better than any trading platform currently available."
SBF's background as a trader has left a deep impression on the market, and many believe he is more sensitive to market trends. Many believe that if SBF were still around, his insights and innovative abilities would elevate emerging tracks led by Solana to new heights, thereby raising the entire industry.
On the 720th day of his imprisonment, SBF misses his teddy pillow Manfred. Meanwhile, outside, some still reminisce about SBF's golden era.
References:
1, (Sam Bankman-Fried Is Shopping His Prison Diary – Here’s A Peek Inside), Steven Ehrlich, Forbes;
2, (SBF maintains his innocence as he trades rice in jail), Jesse Coghlan;