They weren’t rich but they wanted to invest. Then they lost everything.

The MoJo Daily newsletter, Monday through Friday. [View in browser]( [Mother Jones Daily Newsletter](     November 23, 2022 I had never heard of Sam Bankman-Fried until this month when he went from crypto wunderkind to disgraced fraud. But since the high-profile collapse of his empire, Bankman-Fried's "[schlubby](" face has become a regular fixture across homepages, as a wider skepticism of the cryptocurrency boom takes hold. But the story is about more than one man. Many people bought into his dream—and they're losing out because of Bankman-Fried's failures. [As my colleague Ali Breland writes](, the lure of companies like FTX is something we likely all share: the simple aspiration to become financially stable in a society that makes it so damn difficult; a country where, as Ali wrote before in his [fantastic crypto feature](, "the top 10 percent of Americans in wealth [control]( 89 percent of Wall Street’s value." Where white people own [79 percent]( of all wealth. [Ali recently caught up with several FTX users](, many of whom asked to remain anonymous out of embarrassment and genuine disappointment over their steep losses since FTX collapsed. These folks were never rich but they all wanted a shot at financial security. Some of the accounts are heartbreaking. Here's what one user, [who is expecting a child with his girlfriend soon](, told him: "I’m very devastated because I have a mortgage to pay which will be very difficult in the next months. I was fired from my main job a few months ago. Since then I’ve been looking and I’ve been hired on and off from a construction company for small gigs but it’s not enough." The whole thing is worth a read, even if, like me, you generally avoid crypto. Because in the end, there's something extremely human—and deeply familiar—to all of this. —Inae Oh Advertisement [Bookshop.org]( [Top Story] [Top Story]( [They Weren’t Rich But They Wanted to Invest. Then They Lost Everything on FTX.]( The amateur investors who trusted the crypto platform have lost a shot at financial stability. BY ALI BRELAND [Fiercely Independent] Support from readers allows Mother Jones to do journalism that doesn't just follow the pack. [Donate]( [Trending] [Hundreds of New York women are about to sue alleged rapists (and enablers) under a revolutionary new law]( BY MADISON PAULY   [US bans sugar imports from top Dominican producer over forced labor allegations]( BY SANDY TOLAN AND MICHAEL MONTGOMERY   [The Supreme Court just announced Congress can access Trump’s tax returns]( BY RUSS CHOMA   [Big Lie proponent Herschel Walker is getting campaign help from officials he suggested should go to jail]( BY ABBY VESOULIS Advertisement [Bookshop.org]( [Special Feature] [Special Feature]( [“They can’t kill us all”: These scholars lost their countries and found each other]( At the New University in Exile, they fight for democracy from afar. BY MELISSA FAY GREENE Did you enjoy this newsletter? Help us out by [forwarding]( it to a friend or sharing it on [Facebook]( and [Twitter](. [Mother Jones]( [Donate]( [Donate Monthly]( [Subscribe]( This message was sent to {EMAIL}. To change the messages you receive from us, you can [edit your email preferences]( or [unsubscribe from all mailings.]( For advertising opportunities see our online [media kit.]( Were you forwarded this email? [Sign up for Mother Jones' newsletters today.]( [www.MotherJones.com]( PO Box 8539, Big Sandy, TX 75755