Original author: John Wang, former founder of Immutable
Original compilation: Lila, BlockBeats
Editors note: Yesterday, the verdict was announced in the fraud case of former billionaire and FTX founder SBF. In the end, he was sentenced to 25 years in prison by the U.S. Manhattan Court and issued a sky-high fine of US$11 billion. Former founder of immutableJohn WangParticipated in the whole process of the court trial at the scene. He shared his experience and feelings about this on X, and BlockBeats reproduced the full text as follows:
I attended the SBF trial. It was one of the most mind-blowing experiences of my life.
Seeing him receive a 25-year sentence was as surreal as sitting behind him in the courtroom.
Let’s talk about the whole process:
In Twitter’s crypto community, SBF is a larger-than-life figure. I first texted him in 2020, when FTX was just starting out, and I was a freshman research assistant at the time. He inspired me to join the Solana ecosystem in early 2021. Soon, he became the worlds youngest billionaire.
But today, hes sitting in the front row,What I saw was a meek, nervous, pale man—smaller than I had expected.
We briefly made eye contact, then he looked away and lowered his head.
They only let 20 people in, so I arrived at 4 a.m. before dawn. The only person who came before me was a New York Times reporter who was rumored to be the external voice for the SBF parents views on the matter. He was also the only journalist I saw talking to SBF parents.
The case against former U.S. President Trump was being held in a neighboring building at the same time. Secret Service agents, steel fences and black vans drove through the area at dawn. I waited for 5 hours in the freezing New York Financial District.
The court today is much smaller than I expected. I said hello to SBF’s parents who were sitting on the bench next to me. Film writers, sketch artists, and journalists watched SBF like they were animals in a zoo. Everyone stood up as the judge walked in.
SBFs lawyers begged the judge to give him adderall (a neurostimulant drug considered a drug) to relieve SBFs body tremors.
I cannot allow lawyers to feed drugs to people on trial, the judge replied, prompting laughter from reporters and angry shakes from SBF mothers.
Today, a key witness testified: Nishad Singh, FTX’s third largest shareholder and former Director of Engineering at FTX. He has signed a plea agreement with the FBI. He had tears in his eyes as he walked into the stands.
I participated in money laundering, defrauding customers and falsifying financial information to investors.
I have always been frightened by Sam... (He) would twitch all over when he was angry, clench his fingers, close his eyes, clench his teeth or tongue... I once wanted to commit suicide.
The SBF parents frowned, pursed their lips, and coughed angrily in protest.
The jury members present looked like NPCs picked at random from the street. No one looked younger than 40, half were obese, and some didnt even bring laptops. Lawyers had to explain every encryption term to them. When I was your age, mining meant mining rocks, the judge said with a smile.
Its crazy to see a face that once graced magazine covers and Times Square billboards become the butt of jokes. Outside the floor-to-ceiling windows is a bright sky dotted with soft clouds. And the contrast is sickening.
The jurors heads flicked back and forth between the prosecution and the witnesses, as if watching a tennis match, for eight hours.
I took a sneak peek at SBFs mothers notebook and found that she was just doodling randomly (haha).
Prosecutors leaked SBFs diary, which recorded a post-Super Bowl party between him and Hillary Clinton, Kendall Jenner, Katy Perry, DiCaprio and Bezos. FTX has provided $1 billion in sponsorships (such as Stephen Curry, Kevin OLeary and Tom Brady), as well as a $30 million penthouse in the Bahamas.
Jurors laughed at the luxury.
When I went in that day, I hoped to give SBF some presumption of innocence - to attribute fault to malice. But this feeling quickly disappeared, why?
• SBF has independent control over FTX-Alamedas funding mix.He is the only executive with a vested interest in both companies.
• Alameda secured a $65 billion credit line from FTX, resulting in a $10 billion deficit in client funds. The allow_negative backdoor code was enabled in July 2019.
• SBF was still spending hundreds of millions before FTX collapsed (like the $TON deal with Telegram)…wtf
• SBF deceived investors by deliberately inflating revenue by transferring SRM between entities.
• SBF traveled to the Middle East with Scarammuci (Trumps chief of staff) to raise funds after learning that FTX was losing money.
• FTX used illegal donors for its political contributions. Nishad: You are the other side of [FTX]... you have donated to a lot of things that are worse than shit.
• SBF was not involved in coding but designed FTXs technical and financial infrastructure.
all in all,This is a huge fraud. And there are no bank accounts, employees, cash, liquidity management, digital asset custody, cybersecurity practices, or any form of corporate control or governance.
I left the courtroom feeling empty, trying to reflect on the consequences of what I had just experienced.
1. Cryptocurrencies can have very real and huge consequences. Judge Kaplan has also ruled on cases involving Trump, Prince Andrew, Epstein and the Al Queda terrorists. Weve reached a larger scale where peoples life savings are at risk. Its not just about memecoin, fun and games. It is irresponsible to view neglect as part of a fallen culture. If we want to power a global financial system larger than the current crypto-native casinos,We cannot lose this consensus again.
2. Seeing the jury’s perception of the crypto industry, I realize we still have a long way to go in educating and guiding ordinary people. Blockchain user experience is still a joke.
3. Understanding the true scale of finance is unrealistic for most people. A tiny percentage error can result in a difference of hundreds of millions of dollars.
4. Bring business back to shore through sound regulation. In this regard, Coinbase is a pioneer in long-term thinking.
5.DeFi is the answer. By establishing a trustless system, accounts are open, transparent and verifiable by external parties.
