next five to 10 years it hoped to be the largest global financial exchange with 30 billion in annual revenue more than what us retail brokerage giant fidelity investments earned in revenues last year in october 2021 bankmanfried then 29 years old landed on the cover of forbes which pegged his net worth at 265 billion the 25th richest person in america ftx said on its website that ftx its affiliates and its employees have donated over 10m to help save lives prevent suffering and ensure a brighter future bankmanfrieds personal finances suggest he lived frugally for a billionaire a financial statement reviewed by reuters shows that for 2021 he drew an annual salary of 200000 declared 1 million in real estate assets and spent 50000 on personal expenses but in the bahamas his lifestyle was more luxurious than his finances showed at one point he lived in a penthouse overlooking the caribbean valued at almost 40 million according to two people who worked with ftx bankmanfried told reuters he lived in a house with nine other colleagues for his employees he said ftx provided free meals and an inhouse uberlike service around the island ultimate source of truth this year began with ftx seemingly everywhere its logo was emblazoned on a major sports arena in miami and on major league baseball umpire uniforms sports stars and celebrities including tom brady gisele bundchen and steph curry became partners in promoting the company none of them commented for this article bankmanfried became a regular presence in washington donating tens of millions of dollars to politicians and lobbying lawmakers on crypto markets ftx was also planning partnerships with some of the worlds largest companies an ftx document from june 2022 which has not been previously reported shows a list of ftxs select partners for businesstobusiness b2b services prospective partners included retail giant walmart inc social media titan meta platforms inc paymentsystem provider stripe and financial website yahoo finance according to the document a yahoo spokesperson said while we were in very early stages of a prospective partnership with ftx nothing was close to completion when the events of last week occurred a person with knowledge of the matter said stripe has no contract with ftx to enable stripe users to accept crypto payments walmart didnt respond to a request for comment about a proposed partnership with ftx for employee investing meta too didnt comment about discussions to make ftx a digitalwallet provider for instagram users investors loved bankmanfrieds ambition ftx had already received more than 2 billion from backers including sequoia softbank group corp blackrock inc and temasek in january ftx raised a further 400 million valuing the business at 32 billion ftx expected to take its international and us businesses public an investor duediligence document from this june said the document is reported here for the first time at the peak of his powers bankmanfried urged the crypto industry to help governments shape laws to supervise it saying ftxs goal