In the three weeks since his trial began, Sam Bankman-Fried, founder of crypto exchange FTX, has watched in near silence as a parade of ex-colleagues, peers and other witnesses have taken the stand. They have testified to his greed, recklessness, bullying and chicanery. His lawyers have offered relatively little in the way of riposte—and have been pilloried for it. But the strategy and ambitions of the defense, ex-prosecutors say, have been misinterpreted.
Bankman-Fried is charged with multiple counts of fraud in connection with the collapse of FTX. The exchange fell to pieces in November after users found they could not withdraw their funds, worth