News

Law

Asset Management

Investment Banking

Wealth

Hedge Funds

People

Newsletters

Events

Lists

Cryptocurrency

Sam Bankman-Fried’s life behind bars: Crypto tips and paying with fish

FTX founder learns that mackerel is a jailhouse currency and shares a dorm with other high-profile defendants

Sam Bankman-Fried’s life behind bars: Crypto tips and paying with fish
Photo: Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

Sam Bankman-Fried, convicted of fraud in the meltdown of FTX, has traded in crypto for a new currency: mackerel.

The fallen crypto king, who is cooling his heels at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center while he awaits sentencing for seven felony offenses, has learned the fundamentals of prison economics while sharing a dormitory with a former Honduran president awaiting criminal trial and a recently convicted former top cop of Mexico, people familiar with the matter said.

WSJ Logo