FTX dangerous boy Sam Bankman-Fried’s soft home arrest was brightened up Tuesday by a go to from an attractive single crypto influencer who mentioned he appeared “surprisingly optimistic” forward of his trial on a number of fraud fees, The Publish has realized.

Sources mentioned Tiffany Fong stayed late into the evening throughout her journey to see the accused fraudster — at the moment holed up at his mother and pa’s home in Stanford, Calif. — who has been federally charged in what’s shaping as much as be one of many greatest monetary scandals in historical past.

Fong, 26, who makes a speciality of crypto content material, was the primary individual FTX founder Bankman-Fried opened as much as about his rumored polyamorous intercourse life in a telephone name which was first printed in November.

Nevertheless, when contacted by The Publish she mentioned she had met the ankle-monitored former billionaire within the residence’s library and their chat was strictly enterprise.

Fong mentioned Bankman-Fried “appeared much like how he at all times is,” including he “stays surprisingly optimistic, though conscious of [the gravity of his situation],” referring to the jail sentence of as much as 115 years he faces if convicted on all fees.

“He doesn’t appear to wish to speak an excessive amount of about worst case situations,” she added.

Bankman-Fried was arrested within the Bahamas, the place he had been operating the FTX crypto alternate earlier than its collapse, on Dec. 12. He was the jailed for every week within the nation’s infamous rat-infested Fox Hill jail earlier than agreeing to be extradited again to the US.

Fong added they’d “touched upon his time in Fox Hill,” however wouldn’t be drawn on how he’d fared within the jail.

She added: “He undoubtedly expressed remorse and regret a variety of occasions,” throughout their chat, for the purchasers who misplaced thousands and thousands as the results of Bankman-Fried’s alleged monetary misdeeds which led to FTX’s collapse.

“He’s making an attempt to assemble his tackle occasions…. He gave the impression of he was making an attempt to assemble his ideas about what occurred,” Fong added, noting Bankman-Fried was on his laptop as they talked, however was not gaming.

As a part of the phrases of his $250 million bail settlement, Bankman-Fried is allowed on the web however not allowed to make purchases over $1,000 or begin a enterprise. He’s solely allowed to go away the house for train, authorized conferences or court-mandated substance abuse and psychological well being therapy.

In line with sources: “Bankman-Fried’s dad and mom should formally approve any guests beforehand, so that they know what’s happening. It’s their home.”

Fong — who boasts 19,000 YouTube followers and 39,000 Twitter followers — describes her present occupation on LinkedIn as a self-employed “Reluctant Crypto Content material Creator” and mentioned she simply occurred to be in close by San Francisco to spend the vacations along with her sister and her husband when she acquired a message from Bankman-Fried.

Rapidly rising within the Crypto neighborhood, Fong caught the discover of the Biden administration, who invited her to the White Home Christmas Social gathering, the place she quipped she let Biden “scent my hair,” in an Instagram publish of her smiling beside the president.

In one other Publish from contained in the White Home, she joked: “whats up @potus, i’ve some questions on your son’s laptop computer.”

She has carefully adopted FTX’s implosion and Bankman-Fried’s authorized troubles on her Youtube channel, which she claims she began to “vent” about cryptocurrency.

In her first video, posted in June, Fong defined how she misplaced $200,000 within the collapse of the US Crypto lender Celsius Community, which filed for chapter in New York in July.

Fong additionally carefully lined the fallout from Celsius Community and its embattled founder and former CEO Alex Machinsky on her channel.

Bankman-Fried’s interview schedule hasn’t slowed down regardless of being positioned underneath home arrest at his Stanford regulation professor dad and mom’ $4m home – which they needed to put up as collateral to satisfy his bail necessities.

On Friday, he was visited for a number of hours by bestselling creator Michael Lewis, as he seems to be turning the collapse of his crypto empire right into a blockbuster.

Sources advised The Publish on Tuesday “Moneyball” and “The Large Quick” author met with Bankman-Fried simply hours after he landed in California — presumably to speak about how a 30-year-old went from a billionaire CEO to going through as much as life in jail in a matter of weeks.