It took less than eight days for Sam Bankman-Fried to go from being dubbed the "King OfCrypto" to his company filing for bankruptcy and him stepping down as chief executive, potentially facing federal investigations into his handling of the company's finances.
In the last few years, the internet has been flooded with long interviews with him, speaking over video chat from his office desk in the Bahamas
A clicking noise can be heard in some of them.
The sound coming from the Americanentrepreneur's mouse is persistent and clearly coming from his interview.
It goes in rapid, on-off bursts.
Mr Bankman- Fried's eyes were moving around the screen.
It is not clear from the videos what he is doing on his computer.
He said he's famous for playing League of Legend while on the phone.
Mr Bankman- Fried is an avid game player. He explained why in a series of posts to his followers. He played the fantasy battle game to distract himself from running two companies that trade billions of dollars a day.
People drink too much and gamble. He said that he plays league.
Another anecdote about his gaming has surfaced online since the 30-year-old's empire collapsed this week.
During a high-level video call with their investment team, Mr Bankman- Fried played an intense game of League of Legend.
It didn't seem to stop them from enjoying themselves. The group made an investment in Mr Bankman- Fried's company FTX.
Sequoia Capital wrote off their FTX investment as a loss after they deleted their gushing post.
Since the collapse of Mr Bankman-Fried's $32 billion empire, other investors have lost huge sums of money.
The exchange had an estimated 1.2 million users who used it to buy cryptocurrencies.
Many people are wondering if they will ever be able to get their savings back in FTX's digital wallet.
The rise of Mr Bankman- Fried is its own dramatic story of risks, rewards and beanbags.
Mr Bankman- Fried studied physics and mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
He recalled being swept up in the "effective altruism" movement. He said that effective altruism is a community of people trying to figure out what practical things they can do with their lives to make a difference.
Mr Bankman-Fried recalls that he decided to get into banking because he wanted to give back to the community.
During his short time at Jane Street in New York, he learned to trade stocks and decided to try his hand at the virtual currency.
He began arbitraging when he noticed the variations in the value of the currency on different exchanges.
Is the future of money based on cripto-currencies?
After a month of making modest profits, he started a trading business with some college friends.
It took months of perfect techniques to move money from one bank to another. He and his small team made a lot of money.
He said that they were "super-dogged" a year ago. We continued to go. If someone threw another roadblock, we would be creative and build a new system to get us through that hoop.
His team made $1 million a day by January.
He was asked how that felt by a CNBC reporter.
He said it made perfect sense and was intellectual. It surprised me every day.
Sam Bankman-Fried became an official billionaire in 2021. The exchange saw $10-$15 billion traded a day, making it the second largest in the world.
FTX was valued at $32 billion and a household name, with an NBA stadium named after the company and endorsements from celebrity backers.
Mr Bankman- Fried was happy to give his followers an insight into his life. He sleeps on a bean bag next to his desk and has a picture of him next to his staff.
He posted in the middle of the night. I couldn't sleep. He said to go back to the office.
Mr Bankman- Fried wanted to give away a lot of money. He said in the radio interview that he had given away a few hundred million.
His generosity also extended to other people. The nickname "Crypto's White Knight" was given to the "King ofCrypto" in the last six months.
The "Crypto Winter" is occurring because of the falling price of Cryptocurrencies. Mr Bankman- Fried gave out hundreds of millions of dollars in rescue funds.
He told CNBC that it was not going to be good long-term if we had real pain and blow points. It's unfair to customers.
He said in the interview that he had $2 billion in reserve that he could use to help failing companies.
He was trying to raise money to save his company and customers.
Questions about the real financial stability of FTX began swirling after an article on the CoinDesk website suggested that much of Mr Bankman- Fried's trading giant Alameda Research rests on a foundation largely made up of a coin that a sister company of FTX invented.
The Wall Street Journal reported that customer deposits were used as loans for trading.
The beginning of the end came when the main competitor of FTX publicly sold off all of its coins.
Changpeng Zhao told his 7.5 million followers that his company would be selling off holdings.
Customers panicked and withdrew billions of dollars from the exchange.
The withdrawals were stopped and Mr Bankman-Fried tried to get a rescue.
Reports of mishandled customer funds had swayed its decision.
FTX was declared bankrupt.
Mr Bankman-Fried said he was sorry that they ended up here.
Hopefully things can get back on track. Hopefully this will bring a lot of transparency, trust and governance to them.
He said he was surprised to see how things unfolded.
It was, and is, theCryptoworld. Many are wondering what will happen if FTX goes down along with the price of Bitcoins.
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