Crypto billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried no longer wants to spend $1 billion on political donations
FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried has reversed his statement to spend up to or even more than $1 billion in political donations in the run-up to the 2024 US presidential election.
Back in May, the 30-year-old billionaire said he plans to give “north of $100 million” in the next presidential election and had a “soft cap” of $1 billion to fund the US Democratic Party’s 2024 presidential campaign.
But in a remarkable reversal, Bankman-Fried referred to his statement as a “stupid quote”, saying he was careless. “It was a stupid quote,” Bankman-Fried told Politico’s Morning Money podcast this week. “I think my messages were sloppy and inconsistent in some cases.”
Bankman-Fried has already spent nearly $40 million on political action committees and campaigns this year, the bulk of it going to the Democratic Party and its candidates. He was one of the largest single donors behind Joe Biden’s successful 2020 presidential campaign.
Bankman-Fried has already spent nearly $40 million on political action committees and campaigns this year, with most of it going to the Democratic Party and its candidates. He was one of the largest single donors behind Joe Biden’s successful 2020 presidential campaign.
“At some point, once you’ve given your message to the voters, there’s just not much more you can do,” Bankman-Fried said. “You can spend more time on it, and more messages, more money, more everything else, [but] you achieve nothing more.”
Bankman-Fried, who had previously pledged to spend up to $1 billion to prevent Donald Trump from retaking the White House should the former president run again, did not say whether he would donate again in the run-up to the 2024 presidential election.
Bankman-Fried Backdrops after recent investment party
Bankman-Fried has emerged as crypto’s savior during the recent crypto meltdown that started with the unprecedented crash of the Terra ecosystem. Over the past few months, the CEO has spent a lot of money propping up the digital asset industry.
He has bailed out several crypto firms to protect against a wider contagion effect. Among other things, he bought a 7.6% stake in the leading stock trading app Robinhood and bought the Canadian crypto trading platform Bitvo as well as Embed Financial Technologies.
Most recently, his exchange FTX announced it would buy the assets of crypto lender Voyager Digital, which filed for bankruptcy in July, for $1.4 billion.
