From macro to mackerel: Sam Bankman-Fried paid for haircut with fish, says WSJ

Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced founder of crypto exchange FTX and trading firm Alameda Research, has quickly adapted to the economic realities of prison life at New York's Metropolitan Detention Center, utilizing fish to pay for a haircut, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

Learning from inmates, including a former Honduran president and a Mexico top cop, the former Jane Street trader finds himself a long way from the $30 million Bahamas penthouse crypto-billionaire lifestyle, swapping trading in high-value digital assets to become a mackerel trader — the go-to currency in federal prisons since a ban on cigarettes in 2004.

The trend of using food items like mackerel, known colloquially as “macks” among inmates, as currency in prisons highlights a system where stable, tangible commodities have replaced inaccessible traditional money.

Macks are not immune to the inflationary pressures of the outside world, however, nor prison demand, with a pouch of mackerel filets reportedly costing $1.30 through the Brooklyn jail’s commissary, up 30% from $1 in 2020.

Prison consultant Bill Baroni, who also spent time in jail, told the WSJ he paid four macks for his own haircut while inside. “The mack currency system is far more stable than crypto,” Baroni added.

Giving out crypto tips to prison guards

While Bankman-Fried’s digital asset trading days are over, he has been seen offering crypto tips to prison guards, one source told the WSJ.

A Federal Bureau of Prisons spokesman told the WSJ it couldn’t comment on the conditions for any individual in its custody for privacy and security reasons. 

“Sam’s doing the best he can under the circumstances,” Bankman-Fried’s spokesperson, Mark Botnick, told the WSJ.

SBF guilty on all counts and motion for release denied

Currently awaiting sentencing on charges including wire fraud and money laundering, Bankman-Fried was spotted with a polished new haircut in recent court appearances.

Bankman-Fried was convicted on Nov. 2 on all seven criminal counts of defrauding the customers, lenders and investors of FTX, the crypto exchange he led until its dramatic collapse a year ago, which saw customers lose billions in what prosecutors called "one of the biggest financial frauds in U.S. history."

He faces up to 115 years in prison, with sentencing set for March 28. Yesterday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit denied Bankman-Fried’s latest release attempt, meaning he will have to stay in jail as his lawyers try to appeal his case.