FTX co-founder – Sam Bankman-Fried
Sam Bankman-Fried is the co-founder of FTX, a digital asset derivatives exchange platform. He founded FTX in 2019 with fellow trader Gary Wang and has since grown it into one of the leading crypto exchanges in the world.
Before founding FTX, Bankman-Fried was a successful algorithmic trader on multiple hedge funds and trading desks. He also held positions at Jane Street Capital, Susquehanna International Group, and DRW Trading Group. His experience as both an investor and trader have been integral to helping him build out the features and functionality for his own exchange.
Bankman-Fried holds degrees from both Stanford University (BSc in Mathematics) and MIT (Masters in Operations Research), where he graduated at age 21 after skipping two grades during high school due to exceptional academic performance. At 21 years old he had already achieved several impressive milestones such as becoming a professional blackjack player before transitioning into finance soon thereafter.
In addition to developing FTX, Bankman Fried is also the CEO of Alameda Research – a cryptocurrency market making firm which works closely with FTX by providing liquidity for its markets through their automated trading strategies powered by machine learning algorithms written by their team of quantitative developers.
The combination of his educational background along with his extensive experience within financial markets has enabled him to create some of the most advanced features seen on any cryptocurrency derivative exchange today including options contracts that offer up to 50x leverage; futures contracts available across all major cryptocurrencies; tokenized stocks derived from indices; leveraged tokens; OTC services; perpetual swaps & more recently “leveraged ETFs” which provide traders exposure to leveraged long or short portfolios composed of different cryptocurrencies without having open margin positions directly on each coin they are interested in investing/trading against .