Anthony Boyle on Playing Sam Bankman-Fried in Netflix’s ‘The Altruists’: ‘He Might Have Been the World’s First Trillionaire’

Irish actor Anthony Boyle opens up about portraying disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried in The Altruists, a new Netflix drama exploring the crypto exchange’s meteoric rise and catastrophic collapse. Boyle, known for roles in Masters of the Air and Tolkien, delves into the psychology of a man who went from crypto wunderkind to convicted fraudster, noting the staggering scale of what was lost. “Sam might have been the world’s first trillionaire had he not gone to jail,” Boyle says, underscoring the financial heights Bankman-Fried reached before FTX imploded in November 2022. The series, which blends sex, power, and digital currency intrigue, aims to unpack how a young math prodigy convinced investors, celebrities, and regulators that he was building the future of finance. Boyle’s performance captures both the awkward charisma and the dangerous ambition that defined Bankman-Fried, whose 25-year prison sentence marked one of the most dramatic falls in modern business history. For viewers, The Altruists offers a cautionary tale about hype, hubris, and the unregulated frontier of cryptocurrency. As streaming audiences hunger for real-life scandal, Boyle’s transformation may be the role that defines the next wave of true-crime drama.