On December 13, 2022, FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was formally arrested by the Bahamas police. If we count from that day, this is 720 days that SBF has been in prison, exactly two years. In his diary, SBF wrote, “I miss my little bear pillow, his name is Manfred.” This is the longest content in the first three chapters of the 32-year-old SBF’s diary, except for describing his fellow inmates, after experiencing $11 billion in property confiscation and 25 years of imprisonment.
SBF’s autobiographical memoir could bring a million-dollar advance from a publisher, according to an agent familiar with the matter. “The SBF’s motivations for trying to find a publisher for its diary are unclear. It was clearly not about money.”
Because under the forfeiture policy, all of SBF’s property and potential income, including potential income from publishing his memoirs, will be used to pay off his debts and compensate the victims of his fraud.
This means that even if the publication of the memoirs brings in significant revenue, the money will go directly to compensate those who suffered financial losses as a result of FTX’s bankruptcy. In the eyes of SBF, all inmates are gorillas. He writes as if he were Jane Goodall, the world’s renowned expert on chimpanzees, having studied social and family interactions for 60 years.
SBF observed and studied other inmates in the prison like “chimpanzees.”
He wrote, “Most people will be assimilated into prison, they will fight over a banana, and they will give everything they have for the chance to do drugs again.” “A drug called Deuce is widely used here. The ingredients are unknown.
I only know that it is smuggled into the prison by soaking it into ordinary paper, and those prisoners who take it turn into zombies every night.”
SBF seems to be in stages one and two of psychological changes after experiencing a major event: the numbing stage-cannot believe it and refuse to accept the facts; the complaining stage-blaming others and oneself for failing to deal with the development of things; the depression stage-accepting what has happened, resulting in sadness and depression.
His writings in the diary always “looked at everything around him with a cold eye” and told him that “I don’t belong here.” On the 720th day of imprisonment, SBF misses his bear pillow. Sleeping in prison is not very good. MDC is a sleepless place. Even at night, prisoners scream and curse one after another.
The lights are always in a semi-dark state 24 hours a day, making it difficult to tell the time. , which makes SBF very uncomfortable. In the loneliest moment of his life, Manfred was his only comfort. “I really miss Manfred,” he wrote in his diary. Image source:@LilMoonLambo
At MDC, a comfortable pillow is almost a luxury.
SBF tried to replace the pillow with a suit from court, or a towel and prison uniform stacked on top of each other, but these temporary solutions were far from providing enough comfort. “My neck has started to hurt,” he said helplessly. That little bit of improvement made his night a little easier until he traded two muffins for a pillow improvised with mattress stuffing and a T-shirt by a junkie inmate.
In prison life, sports gambling has become a pastime for many prisoners. One day, an inmate named Harry shared his gambling strategy with SBF: “Bet $100 first, then bet $250 if you lose, then bet $600 again, and so on until you win back. All bets.”
SBF wrote with contempt: “I really couldn’t bear to tell him that this trading strategy is a typical ‘gambler’s fallacy’.”
Although SBF behaves like an 80-year-old man in prison, no one knows “gambling” better than him in this regard.
The prison mainly lives on beans and rice, and rice has “become a transaction currency within MDC.” SBF even jokingly said: “Compared with his previous life as a high-frequency trader, the arbitrage opportunities in prison are much better.” He can finally be a proud trader again and continue to despise everything around him, regardless of Is it the people here or the life here.
Arrogant people are more likely to succeed and mess up more easily. This can also be well understood. In order to counter the three star witnesses opposite him in court, he stood on the witness stand and testified in person. Even though his lawyer and a prosecutor told him that the probability of self-incrimination was quite low.
Historically, there were very few cases in which defendants successfully defended themselves. In his 22-year career, he had only seen one defendant successfully self-incriminate. But SBF insisted on going his own way, and even almost fell out with his own lawyer, and the situation was chaotic for a time.
Christmas 2023, SBF in MDC Prison Photos
On the other side, in stark contrast to SBF, is CZ, who completed a $4.3 billion fine and spent four months in a US prison. In the photos taken by reporters during his previous court appearances, he was wearing a neat suit and looked calm. CZ in and out of court
In addition to the letter of apology written by CZ himself, the judge also received a 43-page plea letter, the longest in history, from CZ’s family, friends and colleagues, allowing CZ’s complete image to be displayed in front of the judge in a more three-dimensional way.
It was also prison life, but CZ showed a completely different style from SBF: “This experience made me realize the most important things in life again. I miss my children, family, friends, colleagues and community. Others I miss things too, but not as much as I miss people. You miss food and a comfortable bed, but these things don’t have much impact on me.”
When asked if he had made friends in prison, CZ responded in the affirmative, “Yes, you have to make friends, and it can be difficult if you are alone.” He expressed his sympathy for those who have served long sentences for small crimes.
sympathize with the prisoners and maintain contact with some friends. CZ has also started to exercise. This may be a preparation he made before he was imprisoned to prevent him from being regarded as having “the physique of an 80-year-old man” in prison. CZ, who was released from prison more than a month ago, appeared at the Binance Blockchain Conference in Dubai.
His performance was better than anyone expected, and he won a lot of applause from the audience. The headline of the foreign media that day was “The King Is Back”. If SBF is still there
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, SBF has missed a lot in the encryption industry.
Some people who “judge heroes by success or failure” say that CZ has much richer life experience than SBF, and is more resilient in difficult situations. But if we don’t judge heroes based on success or failure, if SBF were still there, the current market environment might be the same. For example, the market has plummeted in the past two days.
If FTX can still be used, retail investors will have more opportunities to make money. The most typical one is FTX’s basket of altcoin index. By long and short the entire altcoin index, rather than a certain one Altcoin. However, after the collapse of FTX, the product track of this “copycat index” is still blank.
Currently, there is no platform on the market that can provide similar services. Not only is a trading tool missing, the collapse of FTX is a major blow to the liquidity of the crypto market, which has rapidly shortened the liquidity in the industry. “The entire industry has regressed for at least three years.” This was the intuitive feeling of many people at the time, including Justin Sun.
SBF and FTX understand the market better than any trading platform currently on the market. SBF’s background as a trader has left a deep impression on the market, and it is believed that he is more sensitive to market trends. Many people believe that if SBF is still there, his insights and innovation capabilities will push some emerging tracks led by Solana to new heights, and then take the entire industry to greater heights.
On the 720th day of his imprisonment, SBF missed his bear pillow Manfred. Outside, there are still people who miss the golden era of SBF.
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<p>The post Title: SBF’s Diary: A Glimpse into the Life of a Prisoner Missing His Bear Pillow first appeared on CoinBuzzFeed.</p>
