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The Story: The Sam Bankman-Fried trial is over. He has been found guilty on seven counts of fraud, and FTX no longer exists. So where does that leave crypto, and its public perception?

Whether or not it’s fair, the collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX was a PR nightmare for crypto at large. When billions of dollars are stolen by a fraudulent company, everything touching that company can’t help but be stained with its scarlet ink.

And crypto markets felt the pain of the FTX scandal. Billions of dollars were lost, the market’s valuation fell below $1 trillion dollars, investors were deterred from entering the space, and the SEC even pursued regulatory action across the industry.

But now that SBF’s trial is over, and it’s been made clear that fraud will not be tolerated in the industry, can crypto rebuild its reputation?

The Expert Take: Ian Rogers, chief experience officer at Ledger, believes the answer to that question is yes: “The SBF debacle, from the realization to now the conviction, in some ways bookends on the bear market.”

Rogers doesn’t believe the fraud of FTX had anything to do with crypto. He says, “This isn’t really a story about crypto at all. It’s a story about greed, mismanagement, and huge risk-taking.”

When we asked Rogers if he thinks there is still a bright future ahead for investments into digital currency and blockchain technology, he responded confidently, “That’s like somebody asking me in the year 2000 or 2001, ‘Do you think this internet thing is going to be big?’...there’s no question that we will have digital value in the future. When I pay at the local pharmacy, I won’t be using credit rails, I’ll be using digital cash. My identification, my passport ultimately will be a digital document, and the way that I move borders will be by proving I am the owner of the wallet that contains that digital document that proves my identity. So digital ownership, in a ton of ways, will be a huge part of the lives of future humans.”

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