Sam Bankman-Fried uses time in jail to promote Solana — TradingView News

Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), the former CEO of the now-defunct crypto exchange FTX, has been actively working on his legal case in prison. Apart from that, he has also used his time to share crypto market insights with the guards, recommending they invest in Solana’s coin (SOL), the NY Times reported today.

“Since last summer, he has been housed at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, where he has spent much of his time working on the case, a person with knowledge of the matter said. Mr. Bankman-Fried has also shared crypto market tips with the guards, the person said, recommending investments in the digital coin Solana.”

A vocal advocate for Solana, SBF strongly believes in its potential as a faster and cheaper alternative to the Ethereum blockchain. FTX was built on top of the Solana blockchain, which in turn helped to significantly increase Solana’s visibility and adoption.

Following the collapse of FTX, the Solana ecosystem suffered a major setback. The association with a fraudulent exchange and the potential liquidation of FTX’s SOL holdings caused the price of SOL to plummet below $10. At that time, Solana attempted to distance itself from FTX and said it still focused on ecosystem development, but the close ties to FTX remain a reputational hurdle.

Solana has been working to rebuild trust since the FTX’s fallout, undertaking several key developments. In January, Solana Mobile unveiled the ‘Chapter 2’ web3 smartphone, which saw over 25,000 pre-orders immediately after the announcement. Solana Foundation recently kicked off a new hackathon program in collaboration with Colosseum.

Following the crypto rally in December last year, SOL has retraced above $100. It is currently trading at around $108, according to CoinGecko’s data.

According to the NY Times, SBF is making efforts to appeal his conviction for fraud and seek a more lenient sentence. Initially facing up to 110 years in prison, his legal team is aiming for a reduced sentence ranging from 5 to 6.5 years.

SBF has reinforced his defense by appointing new attorneys, including Marc Mukasey. He is also backed by a network of support orchestrated by his parents. They have been rallying support from acquaintances, including law professors and former employees, to vouch for SBF’s character and argue the non-malicious intent behind FTX’s operations.