When 30-year-old crypto billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried appeared in the Bahamas’ Magistrates’ Court to answer to eight counts of conspiracy, money laundering and other crimes, he looked like a much older person — and it wasn’t simply that the prospect of 115 years in prison had aged him.

Gone were his trademark long T-shirt and shorts. His shoes were tied. Surrounded by federal agents and lawyers, with his wild rat’s nest of hair more neatly coiffed, he looked like a garden variety Wall Street defendant facing down charges of being a tax cheat.

And that was the point. For Bankman-Fried, looks have always told his story.

During his time in the public eye, SBF (as he is widely known) donned a regular uniform of sneakers, long white socks, shorts that went below his knees and a long T-shirt that sometimes seemed barely laundered. He let his hair grow in every direction. This dishevelment seemed curated to advertise his youth and irreverence.

The aesthetic sent a message about his crypto business, intended to reassure jittery investors: This is a new generation that invests its money in a different way. While technically a Millennial, SBF cultivated an appearance of Gen-Z or youthful nonchalance, while surrounding himself with younger colleagues and hangers-on. For older people terrified by the idea of an unmoored currency, it may have been strangely reassuring — Bankman-Fried looked so different, and yet was accruing wealth so quickly, that he must have known something about the economy of the future.

[Jeez, I hope so. “He looks like such a schlub, but he’s so rich!” without realizing it’s because dupes who think that way are the reason – handing the schlub money, not through any genius on his part. Ratty razzle-dazzle. ~ Beege]