In Sam Bankman-Fried’s quest to keep his cryptocurrency empire looking profitable, the disgraced founder of FTX often promoted newfangled digital currencies that crypto aficionados came to call “Samcoins.”
Mr. Bankman-Fried wooed the developers of these new coins with names like Serum and Maps, insisting that they make their trading debuts on the FTX exchange. Then his hedge fund, Alameda Research, would buy some of these newly listed Samcoins to prop up their value, while Mr. Bankman-Fried used FTX’s influence in the crypto industry to drum up interest in those coins and persuade other investors to also buy significant amounts.
Mr. Bankman-Fried was thus able to inflate the coins’ value artificially, making Alameda look healthier than it was and papering over problems at his companies until they imploded in November.
Source: FTX Founder Sam Bankman-Fried Gamed Markets, Crypto Rivals Say – The New York Times
