SBF

Chapter 38Senate

In October 2022, there was a bill being written by the offices of Senators Debbie Stabenow and John Boozman. No one knew for sure what it would say once its coauthors started pushing it; they just knew that SBF was very optimistic about its final language.

They also knew its name, the Digital Commodities Consumer Protection Act (DCCPA). The DCCPA felt like it could be the one that would guide the conversation going into the next Congress. If it wasn't a winner, it might be a bellwether.

That's when Sam did a very Sam thing. He published a blog post.

He had done this before his first appearance in the House in December 2021. Then, FTX had put out principles for regulating crypto trading platforms. No one had much cared.

In October 19, 2022, he went much further. He published a long blog post with the title “Possible Digital Asset Industry Standards.” It did not go down well with those who had been behind him thus far.

This was a turning point for SBF in the public mind. It was as if people had come to see him as too rich and suspect that SBF was really just out to protect FTX, that he really wasn't on the side of normal people and maybe not even on the side of his industry peers.

Nathaniel Whittemore, the host of CoinDesk's podcast, The Breakdown (and then a member of FTX's comms team), picked this as the starting point for his version of events leading through to SBF leaving the company he founded.

On the first episode of his show after the bankruptcy, Whittemore ...