Earlier this year, a journalist suggested to now-former crypto billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried that he was “in the Ponzi business and it’s pretty good.” Bankman-Fried, the son of two Stanford professors who went on to become the CEO of cryptocurrency exchange FTX, did not really push back, calling it a “reasonable response” with a “depressing amount of validity.”
What a Ponzi scheme needs more than anything is a steady stream of hype to attract new marks. FTX, whatever prosecutors determine it was, indisputably invested heavily in marketing and celebrity endorsements. Celebrities ranging from Tom Brady to Larry David starred in commercials for the exchange. Warriors star Steph Curry cut a series of ubiquitous FTX ads; he reportedly received a “payment and undisclosed equity stake” for them.
Not that Curry needs the money, but for his sake, hopefully he was paid in U.S. dollars and not crypto tokens, as the equity is now worthless with FTX’s bankruptcy filing last week.
Another aspect of FTX’s marketing blitz was a series of naming rights deals, including one NBA arena and uniform patches for MLB umpires. (As Bomani Jones presciently put it earlier this year, “Crypto companies use athletes to make them seem cool, and the f—king baseball cops to make them seem safe and rulebound.”) Though these deals were cut through FTX’s still-existing American subsidiary — the main company operated in the Bahamas…
