FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried testifies at his fraud trial

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried has begun testifying at his fraud trial, saying the innovative business he hoped would move the cryptocurrency ecosystem forward ended up doing the opposite and customers were hurt. The onetime cryptocurrency golden boy lost his businesses and his reputation as a pioneering entrepreneur in an emerging facet of finance when a rush of customers withdrew their money last year, exposing that billions of dollars were missing. His much-anticipated testimony Friday instantly became the centerpiece of a defense that insists Bankman-Fried had no criminal intent as he took actions that prosecutors say were directly to blame for the collapse last November of businesses Bankman-Fried ran from the Bahamas.