Why did cryptocurrency derivatives trade FTX agree to pay $135 million for its naming rights to a Miami stadium? For the good of humankind, says CEO Sam Bankman-Fried.
Within an appearance Monday on CoinDesk TV’s”First Mover,” Bankman-Fried said he wants to create as much cash as you can in crypto and give it away through the practice of effective altruism.
This was one inspiration for FTX’s deal with all the Miami-Dade, Fla., venue, home to National Basketball Association team Miami Heat, he said. To his mind, it is partly an investment locally.
“I’m looking at what role I could be playing in the world,” Bankman-Fried said. “Frankly, I hope we did a lot of good with a few of the money that’s likely to be spent on this, and help a great deal of residents from the county.”
Disruptive technologies have birthed a long lineup of billionaires which go to print their names on both sides of arenas and team championships. Amid a booming period from the cryptocurrency industry, Bankman-Fried said he is looking at exactly what his legacy will be.
If the NBA approves FTX’s deal, Bankman-Fried would become the first crypto primary executive whose name could be synonymous with a sports company.
Bankman-Fried confessed there’s no”well-understood conversion fracture” to ascertain how much to pay for the naming rights and whether it is a fantastic thing. In some cases, the $135 million invested can be considered an advertising expense.
“We feel as if we’ve built a really fantastic product… and we’d really love to find a good deal of people become exposed to it and try it out and see what they believe,” Bankman-Fried explained. Miami is a growing hub for crypto businesses, and also the headline-grabbing deal could tempt a new set of users who have never played about with crypto, ” he said.
“You view reverberations from what happens in the countries,” Bankman-Fried explained.
The line between making money and doing good is often blurred in crypto. Non-fungible tokens, for example, touted for the capability to democratize possession of electronic products, are getting an arena for scams, Bankman-Fried said.
“I worry that a lot of what’s going on in NFTs is not… someone carrying a product with intense requirement and finding a way to utilize blockchain to ensure it is that much better,” he said. “The worry here is that this ends up like 2017, 2018 with [initial coin offerings] and ends up giving a bad name to some of the distance.”