Number Go Up: Inside Crypto's Wild Rise and Staggering Fall

by Zeke Faux

Bankman-Fried had become one of Washington’s biggest political donors. He gave $5 million to a committee supporting Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election, and FTX and its executives spread around at least $90 million in campaign contributions, making them one of the biggest donors for the 2022 midterm elections. Most went to Democrats, but FTX executives also gave at least $20 million to Republicans. One in three members of Congress received donations. If Bankman-Fried was trying to buy his way to a new version of U.S. regulations that favored him and boxed out his competitors, it seemed to be working. In Washington, he was treated like a financial innovator, not a crypto pirate. A week before our meeting in Nassau, he’d testified at a congressional hearing, offering advice about how the industry should be regulated. Senator Cory Booker, who’d received a $5,700 donation, fawned over him, even joking: “I’m offended you have a much more glorious Afro than I once had.”