We Asked New Yorkers if They’d Heard of Sam Bankman-Fried
“I'd say I'd need to know a little bit more about crypto and how people actually invest in it.” Asking New York City individuals about Sam Bankman-Fried and being on the jury.
To some, Sam Bankman-Fried’s impending trial is one of the biggest stories in recent news, but to many New Yorkers, the name does not strike a chord.
The FTX founder, who has pleaded not guilty to charges including wire fraud and conspiracy, will go on trial next week in a New York City federal courtroom. The jury for the case will consist of 12 randomly selected New York State residents and two alternates. CoinDesk spoke with several pedestrians in Manhattan’s Financial District to understand what this group could look like.
Many of these random New Yorkers suggested that they would need a better understanding of the digital asset space and Bankman-Fried’s cryptocurrency empire to be confident in their judgment. A majority declined to be interviewed for this article and video, claiming that they were not familiar with the story, and some even expressed distaste for the topic.
One pedestrian, when asked if they were interested in crypto, replied back “no, nor do I have any interest in anyone involved in it.”
Another person, Lucy Rafter – a law student originally from Ireland – admitted that she doesn’t know anything about crypto.
“It’s like a new fad,” she said. “I'd need to learn everything from scratch.”
On the other hand, Haseeb Khurram, a visitor from overseas who claimed to have “at least $7,000” stuck in the bankrupt exchange, has strong opinions about the upcoming trial.
“He should be guilty and he deserves what is coming for him,” he said.
An outlier from the interviewees was Jared Blikre, a seasoned reporter and anchor at Yahoo Finance.
The collapse of FTX reminded him of the MF Global bankruptcy in 2011, “but it's about 10 times worse,” the finance veteran said. However, Blikre doubted that he would be selected for the jury given his expertise. “I know a little bit too much.”
Attorneys for the Department of Justice and Bankman-Fried’s defense filed their questions for possible jurors earlier this month, which they hope will gauge if those who could be selected are familiar with the case, the cryptocurrency industry or the “effective altruism” philosophy that Bankman-Fried championed.
Plus pour vous
Protocol Research: GoPlus Security

Ce qu'il:
- As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M.
- GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month.
- Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B.
Sizin için daha fazlası
U.S. Senate's Warren asks for Trump-tied crypto probe as market structure bill drags

The influential Democrat is the most vocal critic of the crypto legislation, and she continues to throw rhetorical sand in the gears of the negotiation.
Bilinmesi gerekenler:
- U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, is calling for a probe into DeFi platforms, especially on their relationship with the business interests of President Donald Trump.
- Warren's pushback comes as the Senate is still negotiating the details of a crypto market structure bill, a process that's now drifted into January.












