Original author: Jaleel Jia Liu, Blockbeats
Reposted: Luke, Mars Finance
「What the actual fuck, we can't even use pillows? Can we not even sleep?」
On December 13, 2022, FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was formally arrested by the Bahamian police. If calculated from that day, it has been 720 days since SBF was imprisoned, exactly two years.
「I miss my teddy bear pillow, named Manfred,」 SBF wrote in his diary. This teddy bear pillow, named Manfred, is the longest entry in his first three chapters of the diary, apart from descriptions of his cellmates, after experiencing the forfeiture of $11 billion in assets and a 25-year prison sentence at 32 years old.
Exterior view of the prison where SBF is located, MDC in Brooklyn, New York.
Outside the prison, another busy person is SBF's father, who, in addition to preparing for SBF's appeal on a legal level, has also hired a (Forbes) writer, Walter Pavlo, as SBF's consultant, focusing on writing about prison topics.
According to a knowledgeable broker, SBF's autobiography may bring millions of dollars in advance payments to publishers. 「SBF's motivation for seeking a publisher for his diary remains unclear. It's obviously not for the money.」
Because according to the forfeiture policy, all of SBF's assets and potential income, including any income from publishing a memoir, 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 would be directly used to compensate those who suffered economic losses due to FTX's bankruptcy.
In SBF's eyes, all inmates are gorillas.
「His writing makes it seem as if he is Jane Goodall,」 said someone who has seen the first three chapters of SBF's diary, and I find that analogy very vivid. This biologist is the world's most famous expert on chimpanzee research, having studied their social and familial interactions for 60 years.
I found a passage written by Jane Goodall: 「In the first ten years of my research, I believed that chimpanzees were friendlier than humans until I observed that dominant females would deliberately kill the offspring of other females in the group to maintain their dominance, even resorting to cannibalism. They have a dark side to their nature, just like us.」
Next, SBF writes as if he observes and studies the other inmates in prison like 'chimpanzees':
「Most people will be assimilated by prison; they will fight over a banana and use everything they have to trade for another opportunity to use drugs.」
「A drug called Deuce is widely used here, and I can't tell what it's made of; I only know it's smuggled into prison by soaking it into ordinary paper, and those who use it turn into zombies every night.」
「There are two types of people in prison: those serving long sentences who have consciously given up hope for life.」 The other group is the one SBF belongs to: 「When the system deprives you of the freedom to resist, how do you fight against the system? When your true self is seen as such a huge threat to society that you need to be locked in a cage until you finally give it up, how do you remain loyal to your true self?」
It is said that after experiencing significant events, people go through several psychological stages: numbness period - disbelief, refusal to accept the facts; blaming period - blaming others and oneself for not handling the development of events well; depression period - accepting what has happened, hence feeling sad and depressed; recovery period - getting through the depression and starting a new life.
Born into a highly educated family, SBF seems to take longer to digest emotions after experiencing significant events compared to the average person. Even after two years of prison life, SBF seems still stuck in the first and second stages. His diary entries always describe the surroundings with a 'cold eye,' expressing that 'he does not belong here.'
On the 720th day of imprisonment, SBF misses his teddy bear pillow.
Sleep in prison isn't great; in this sleepless place, even at night, inmates' screams and curses echo throughout, and the lights remain in a half-bright, half-dark state 24 hours a day, making it hard to discern time, which makes SBF feel very uncomfortable.
Since he was two years old, SBF has had a stuffed bear named Manfred. This unassuming teddy bear witnessed his journey from Stanford to Boston University, to his career as a trader in New York, and from Berkeley and Hong Kong to founding Alameda and FTX in the Bahamas, all crucial 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.」 He wrote in his diary.
Image source: @LilMoonLambo
In MDC, a comfortable pillow is almost a luxury. SBF tried to use his courtroom suit or stack towels and prison clothes as a substitute for a pillow, but these makeshift solutions provided insufficient comfort. 「My neck has already started to hurt.」 he expressed helplessly.
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 inmates. One day, a cellmate named Harry shared his gambling 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 typical example of the 'gambler's fallacy.'」
Although SBF appears to have the physique of an 80-year-old in prison, no one understands 'gambling' better than him. In prison, he mainly survives on beans and rice, and rice has already 'become a form of currency within MDC.' SBF even jokingly remarked, 「Compared to his previous life as a high-frequency trader, the arbitrage opportunities in prison are much better.」 He can finally act proud as a trader again, continuing to disdain everything around him, whether it’s the people or the life here.
Arrogant people are more likely to succeed but also more likely to mess things up. This is also understandable as he took the stand in court to rebut the three star witnesses against him, even when his lawyer and a prosecutor told him that the probability of self-testimony is quite low; historically, very few defendants have succeeded in self-testimony, having seen only one in his 22-year career.
But SBF remained obstinate, almost leading to a falling out with his own lawyer, and the scene became chaotic.
On Christmas 2023, SBF in MDC prison photo.
On the other side, contrasting with SBF, is CZ, who paid a $4.3 billion fine and spent four months in a US prison. In previous court appearances, he was photographed in a neatly tailored suit, appearing at ease.
CZ entering and exiting the court.
In addition to the apology letter written by CZ himself, the judge also received a historical longest 43-page plea letter from CZ's family, friends, and colleagues, presenting a more three-dimensional image of CZ before the judge.
Despite also living in prison, CZ exhibits a completely different style from SBF: 「This experience has helped me rediscover what is most important in life. I miss my children, family, friends, colleagues, and community. I miss other things too, but not as intensely as I miss people. You miss food, a comfortable bed, but those things don't matter much to me.」
When asked if he made friends in prison, CZ's answer was affirmative, 「Yes, you have to make friends; it can be tough if you are isolated and unsupported.」 He expressed sympathy for those inmates serving long sentences for minor mistakes and maintained contact with some friends.
CZ has also started working out, possibly as a preparation he made before going to prison to prevent being seen as having the physique of an '80-year-old man.' More than a month after being released, at the Binance blockchain conference in Dubai, CZ appeared in a better condition than everyone imagined, receiving a warm welcome from the audience, and the headline news from foreign media that day read, 'The King Is Back.'
If SBF were still around.
When SBF was arrested, the price of BTC was $16,000, while the current BTC price is $100,000. In these two years, SBF has missed too much in the crypto industry.
Some say that in terms of life experience, CZ is much richer than SBF, and he exhibits greater resilience in difficult situations. However, some argue that not judging heroes 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 seasoned investors who experienced the FTX and SBF golden era.
「For example, in the past few days, if the market plummets and FTX is still usable, retail investors would have more opportunities to make money. The most typical example is FTX's basket of altcoin index, which allows for long and short positions on the entire altcoin index rather than on a specific altcoin.」
But after FTX collapsed, this 'altcoin index' product track remains empty, and currently, no platform on the market offers similar services.
Not only is there a missing trading tool, but the collapse of FTX also dealt 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,」 this was the intuitive feeling of many people 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 left a deep impression on the market, and people believe he is more sensitive to market trends. Many believe that if SBF were still around, his insights and innovative capabilities would elevate some emerging sectors, led by Solana, to new heights, thereby lifting the entire industry to greater heights.
On the 720th day of imprisonment, SBF misses his teddy bear pillow Manfred. Meanwhile, outside, there are still people reminiscing about SBF's golden era.