It will not be easy for Donald Trump in the upcoming presidential election: in opposition to him is one of the most eccentric and wealthy people in the crypto world, the great and terrible “Curly Sam” - the owner of the FTX exchange Sam Bankman-Fried.
Sam has previously stated that he is ready to support any candidate who will oppose Trump in the 2024 elections. This is his consistent position: in the last presidential election, he made a private contribution to the Joe Biden campaign fund, which turned out to be the biggest donation ($5.5 million).
But this amount, of course, cannot be compared with the billion (!!!) dollars that have been received in the account of the National Committee of the US Democratic Party from Alameda Research, the Bankman-Fried investment holding, of which the FTX crypto exchange is also a part.
On Jacob Goldstein’s podcast earlier, Sam said he wanted to spend $100 million on the next election campaign. But he has mentioned that this is not the limit, and the “soft limit” for his political investments will be $1 billion, which can be reached “if former President Trump also shall run.”
Thus, Trump unwittingly activated a record option for his Democratic rivals. According to Alex Baumgart, an analyst at OpenSecrets (the organization that tracks electoral campaign financing), “this money will obviously play in its own league.”
The previous record for “hard money” (trust funds for election races) received from private sponsors was held by Sheldon and Miriam Adelson, casino magnates who support the Republican Party - $218 million.
It must be said that the donation from Bankman-Fried, of course, was received in cryptocurrency (1 billion USDT tokens). The memo for the transaction included the phrase “Effective altruism.” These words are full of meaning for Sam, a well-known supporter of this economic and philosophical trend.
The idea of effective altruism is to bring the maximum benefit to a society based on pure rationalism. Not on emotions, not on commitments, not on trends, but solely on a rational choice: “this is what can now bring maximum benefit to maximum people.”
The fact that the multi-billionaire Fried gave 5% of his capital to the election of the new US president means that this is of critical importance. Even if it’s not obvious to us.
