Sam Bankman-Fried has (possibly) sent his first missive to the world since he was transferred to a California prison in March, after being sentenced to 25 years for fraud in connection to his wildly popular crypto exchange, FTX.
It says, simply: “gm.”
The message came in the form of a tweet sent from Bankman-Fried’s verified X account Tuesday at 4:37pm PT. It is unclear if his account was hacked or if the message was from the convicted fraudster himself, but his X bio now reads, “SBF’s words (mostly). Shared by a friend.”
The two-letter tweet is a phrase once commonly used on crypto Twitter meaning “good morning,” though it became a kind of stand-in greeting regardless of the time of day. Apparently, however, it has gone out of fashion. One commenter replied to the tweet: “Hey man, I know you’ve been in the clink a while so I just wanted to tell you that no one really says GM anymore.”
Bankman-Fried’s last tweet came in March, when he posted about his appearance on Tucker Carlson’s YouTube show. Prison officials were apparently unhappy with the appearance; Bankman-Fried was placed in solitary confinement and transferred out of the Brooklyn prison shortly thereafter.
Why Bankman-Fried chose to break his silence on a random Tuesday afternoon — and why or how or even if it was him at all — is unclear. Still, it caused a stir. Within 15 minutes, the post had racked up more than 2,500 likes and 2,600 comments.
“return of the King,” replied an account called Crypto Rap.
“lmao what the fuck sam,” added crypto influencer Tiffany Fong.
Bankman-Fried was convicted in March 2024 of misappropriating billions in customer dollars and defrauding investors out of $1.7 billion.
The tweet came weeks after fellow fraudster Elizabeth Holmes’ Twitter account came back online, spurring a similar online frenzy. Holmes’ bio was also changed, to include “Mostly my words, posted by others,” causing some to speculate that she was feeding tweets to a scribe outside of prison. (The Federal Bureau of Prisons does not allow inmates access to social media.)
Will we see SBF taking after Holmes and posting motivational quotes or asking Bryan Johnson for health advice soon? We can only hope not.