Witnessing the SBF trial: Reflecting on the future of the encryption industry from his end

Original author: John Wang, former founder of Immutable

Original compilation: Lila, BlockBeats

Editor's note: Yesterday, the past The verdict is announced in the fraud case of billionaire and FTX founder SBF. He was eventually sentenced to 25 years in prison by the U.S. Manhattan Court and issued a sky-high fine of $11 billion. Former immutable founder John Wang was on hand to participate in the entire court trial. He shared his experience and feelings about this on 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:

SBF is a legendary figure in Twitter’s crypto community. I first texted him in 2020, when FTX was just starting out, and I was a freshman research assistant. He inspired me to join the Solana ecosystem in early 2021. Soon, he became the world's youngest billionaire.

But today, he was sitting in the front row,I saw It 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 got there at 4am, 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 reporter I saw talking to SBF parents.

The case of former US President Trump was being conducted 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 courtroom 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.

SBF’s lawyers begged the judge to grant adderall, a neurostimulant drug, Considered a drug) to relieve the body tremors of SBF.

The judge responded: "I cannot allow lawyers to feed drugs to people on trial," to 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 clients and tampering with financial information to investors."

"I have always been scared 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 looked like they were picked at random from the street NPC. No one looked younger than 40, half were obese, and some didn't 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.

Saw this picture appear on magazine covers and Times Square billboards It’s really crazy that his face has become the butt of laughter. Outside the floor-to-ceiling windows is a bright sky dotted with soft clouds. And the contrast is sickening.

For eight hours the jurors' heads flicked back and forth between the prosecution and the witnesses as if they were watching a tennis match.

I took a sneak peek at SBF’s mom’s notebook and it turns out she was just doodling randomly (haha).

Prosecutors leaked SBF’s diary, which recorded him and Hillary Clinton, Kendall Jenner, Katy Perry, DiCaprio and Bezos party after the Super Bowl. FTX has provided $1 billion in sponsorships (such as Stephen Curry, Kevin O'Leary and Tom Brady), as well as a $30 million penthouse in the Bahamas.

The 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-Alameda’s 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 of dollars before FTX collapsed (such as the $TON deal with Telegram)...wtf

• SBF deliberately inflated revenue and deceived investors by transferring SRM between entities.

• SBF traveled to the Middle East with Scarammuci (Trump’s 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 shit."

• SBF was not involved in coding but “designed FTX’s 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 and 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. We've reached a larger scale where people's life savings are at risk. It’s 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 afford to lose this consensus again.

2. Seeing the jury's perception of the crypto industry, I realized that we still have a long way to go in educating and guiding ordinary people. The user experience of blockchain is still a joke.

3. It is unrealistic for most people to understand the true scale of finance. A tiny percentage error can result in a difference of hundreds of millions of dollars.

4. Bring the business back to shore through reasonable regulation. In this regard, Coinbase is a pioneer in long-term thinking.

5.DeFi is the answer. By establishing a trustless system, accounts are made public, transparent and verifiable by external parties.

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