FTX’s Crypto Kids Came Dangerously Close to Upending Futures (1)

Everywhere you looked, there it was, the ghostly outline of three letters: FTX.

The confab in Chicago this week was supposed to be another celebration for the golden boy of market structure, Sam Bankman-Fried. His FTX flexed its platinum status at an earlier Futures Industry Association conference in Boca Raton, Florida, hosting a late-night cocktail party by the beach, holding a fireside chat with A-Rod and handing out branded swag from its tricked-out mega-booth in the exhibition hall.

The 30-year-old brought pizzazz to an industry that lacks fleets of Lamborghinis and is filled with job descriptions like exchange operators, risk ...