The luxury real estate market in the Bahamas is booming as prices rose 15% last year, more than any other tropical destination. But even in this market, the swank pads purchased by Sam Bankman-Fried and his cronies will be lucky to fetch what they were purchased for several years ago. It turns out that the the disgraced FTX crew were not only terrible at handling other people’s money, but that they had poor judgment with their own property investments.
“They kind of created their own bubble market,” a Nassau-based property appraiser told Bloomberg, which published a report describing recent efforts to sell the 52 condos and offices that FTX executives spent $255 million to acquire. The report also provides some gaudy details about the style in which Bankman-Fried and his pals—who you may recall professed not to care about material things—liked to live. Here is a description of the Albany enclave where most made their home:
“Everyone at FTX seemed to want a piece of this veritable gated town for the super rich with residents-only pools, racquetball courts and private restaurants. A rare casting of Charging Bull, the 3.5-ton bronze statue that’s been a fixture in the New York Financial District since the late 1980s, greets residents headed past the superyachts lined up at the marina.”
Ryan Salame, the Bankman-Fried lieutenant who is waiting to be sentenced for his role in FTX’s fraud, may have had the worst real estate sense of them all. The property he purchased in a building called the Honeycomb, which offered marina views from an infinity pool, is on the market for $8 million and will be lucky to get that—even though Salame bought it for $8.8 million with money wired from Bankman-Fried’s hedge fund.
The good news is that the Bahamas overall appears to be finally turning the page from its disastrous experience trying to build a crypto economy based around Bankman-Fried’s empire of fraud. As for the FTX founder, he will be spending the weekend not in tropical paradise, but at a federal penitentiary in Oklahoma. He has been temporarily transferred there over the objections of his lawyers who had asked he be allowed to stay in a Brooklyn jail to help pursue what appears to be an expensive long-shot appeal.
A reminder that there will be no newsletter on Monday due to Memorial Day. A special thanks to our veterans, and here’s hoping all of our American readers find time to barbecue and relax after what has been yet another crazy few months in crypto.
Jeff John Roberts
jeff.roberts@fortune.com
@jeffjohnroberts
DECENTRALIZED NEWS
In a familiar case of "buy the rumor, sell the news," prices slumped after the SEC reversed its earlier stance and approved Ethereum ETFs. (CoinDesk)
A Standard Chartered analyst said Ripple or Solana ETFs are "likely a 2025 story not a 2024 one." (The Block)
The popular Ethereum restaking service EigenLayer promises a wave of innovation but skeptics worry it introduces new financial and security risks. (Fortune)
The London Stock Exchange is set to list crypto ETFs next week though half of its four-person ETF team abruptly departed. (Bloomberg)
RIP Kabosu, the 18-year-old Shiba Inu whose face inspired Dogecoin and other memes. (NYT)
MEME O’ THE MOMENT
