Ryan Salame
Co-CEO of FTX's Bahamian subsidiary (FTX Digital Markets) and a top lieutenant of Sam Bankman-Fried. He pleaded guilty in 2023 to campaign-finance and unlicensed-money-transmitting conspiracies and was sentenced to 7.5 years in prison.
Also known as: Ryan Salame
Bio
Ryan Salame was co-CEO of FTX Digital Markets, FTX's Bahamas-based subsidiary, and a close lieutenant of Sam Bankman-Fried. He used FTX-related funds to become a major U.S. political donor (founding the American Dream Federal Action super PAC). [1][2]
Legal outcome
In September 2023 Salame pleaded guilty to conspiracy to make unlawful political contributions / defraud the FEC and conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money-transmitting business. On May 28, 2024 he was sentenced to 90 months (7.5 years) — the first of SBF's inner circle to be sentenced — plus $6M+ forfeiture and $5M+ restitution. [1][2]
Bracketed numbers refer to the numbered sources listed below.
Sources (2)
See also
Luke BelmarIndividualsCryptocurrency influencer Luke Belmar (@lukebelmar on X) became the subject of controversy following allegations related to the promotion of a memecoin. Critics on social media alleged that Belmar used a series of posts referencing a forthcoming cryptocurrency project and a large-scale airdrop to generate interest in a token without explicitly identifying a specific contract address. Belmar published multiple posts discussing an upcoming memecoin, describing plans for what he characterized as a major airdrop and making comparisons to other cryptocurrency projects. Because no contract address was publicly provided, several tokens emerged claiming association with his statements. Critics alleged that this ambiguity enabled speculation around multiple tokens while avoiding a direct endorsement of any particular asset.
Evolved Apes (NFT)ProjectsAn NFT collection launched on OpenSea in September 2021 that promised a fighting game. About a week later its anonymous developer 'Evil Ape' vanished with 798 ETH (~$2.7M). In June 2024 U.S. prosecutors charged three U.K. nationals over the scheme.
This page was last updated on Jun 15, 2026. View revision history.