Money Talks: The cryptocalypse

<p>Until last week, Sam Bankman-Fried - or SBF as he’s become known - was crypto’s poster-child. He was a regular in Washington, DC where he schmoozed journalists, regulators and lawmakers alike. He funded political campaigns and sponsored sports teams ranging from basketball to Formula One. For many, the floppy-haired, 30-year-old once-billionaire wasn’t just the face of his crypto trading firm FTX, he was the face of crypto. But last week, SBJ’s business, which was valued at $32bn at the start of the year, <a href="https://www.economist.com/briefing/2022/11/17/the-failure-of-ftx-and-sam-bankman-fried-will-leave-deep-scars?utm_campaign=a.io&amp;utm_medium=audio.podcast.np&amp;utm_source=moneytalks&amp;utm_content=discovery.content.anonymous.tr_shownotes_na-na_article&amp;utm_term=sa.listeners" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">collapsed into bankruptcy</a> and now he is being investigated by regulators and law-enforcement agencies.</p><br><p>On this week’s “Money Talks’, hosts Alice Fulwood and Soumaya Keynes ask whether the crypto phenomenon <a href="https://www.economist.com/leaders/2022/11/17/is-this-the-end-of-crypto?utm_campaign=a.io&amp;utm_medium=audio.podcast.np&amp;utm_source=moneytalks&amp;utm_content=discovery.content.anonymous.tr_shownotes_na-na_article&amp;utm_term=sa.listeners" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">can survive</a> the loss of a figurehead. They speak with Alesia Haas, the CFO of the second-largest exchange Coinbase. And hear from some of the recipients of SBF’s contributions to the <a href="https://www.economist.com/1843/2022/11/15/the-good-delusion-has-effective-altruism-broken-bad?utm_campaign=a.io&amp;utm_medium=audio.podcast.np&amp;utm_source=moneytalks&amp;utm_content=discovery.content.anonymous.tr_shownotes_na-na_article&amp;utm_term=sa.listeners" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">effective altruism</a> movement about <a href="https://www.economist.com/briefing/2022/11/17/what-sam-bankman-frieds-downfall-means-for-effective-altruism?utm_campaign=a.io&amp;u