Is this the end of crypto?

THE fall from grace was hard and fast.

Only a fortnight ago, Sam Bankman-Fried was in the stratosphere. FTX, his cryptocurrency exchange – then the third-largest – was valued at US$32 billion; his own wealth was estimated at US$16 billion. To the gushing venture capitalists (VCs) of Silicon Valley, he was the financial genius who could wow investors while playing video games – destined, perhaps, to become the world’s first trillionaire. In Washington, he was the acceptable face of crypto, communing with lawmakers and bankrolling efforts to influence its regulation.

Today there is nothing left but one million furious creditors, dozens of shaky crypto firms, and a proliferation of regulatory and criminal probes.