Sam Bankman-Fried Goes From Trading Crypto To Trading Fish In Prison

Updated: 24 November 2023

Disclosure

Don’t invest unless prepared to lose all the money you invest. This is a high-risk investment, you shouldn’t expect to be protected if something goes wrong.

Join Our Telegram channel to stay up to date on breaking news coverage

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried has adapted to the economic realities of life in prison fairly quickly and is now trading fish instead of crypto.

That’s according to a Wall Street Journal story that quotes prison consultant Bill Baroni as saying Bankman-Fried paid four ”macks,” as mackerel are known in prison parlance, for a recent haircut at the Brooklyn Metropolitan Detention Center.

“The mack currency system is far more stable than crypto,” Baroni said, though the story added that inflationary pressures have pushed up the price of a pouch of mackerel filets by 30% to $1.30 via the Brooklyn jail’s commissary since 2020.

Macks took over from cigarettes as the preferred medium of exchange when cigarettes were banned in federal prisons in 2004, the WSJ said.

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, who was convicted of fraud and is cooling his heels at a Brooklyn detention center, has traded in crypto for a new currency: mackerel https://t.co/MYedH4A7dV pic.twitter.com/vKFmvpIQnY

— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) November 23, 2023

Sam Bankman-Fried Faces Up To 115 Years In Prison

Bankman-Fried is currently awaiting sentencing on March 28 on charges related to wire fraud and money laundering, and could face up to 115 years in jail. The collapse of FTX resulted in what prosecutors called “one of the biggest financial frauds in U.S. history.”

“Sam’s doing the best he can under the circumstances,” Bankman-Fried’s spokesperson, Mark Botnick, told the WSJ.

For Bankman-Fried, once considered the king of crypto, it’s a harsh new reality that’s far removed from the $30 million Bahamas penthouse and billionaire lifestyle that he used to enjoy.

Bankman-Fried remains in jail after his bail was revoked in August after the FTX founder was ruled to have misused his bail to tamper with witnesses, including former Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison, his former girlfriend.

The trial commenced in early October, with US prosecutors making arguments to prove he channeled around $8 billion in customer funds to affiliate Alamada Research and to personal property purchases and investments.

Bankman-Fried’s defence argued that he made honest mistakes and that the government unfairly portrayed him as a monster.