Drake quotes Sam Bankman-Fried in his new album and reignites tensions around FTX and Bitcoin

Sam Bankman-Fried continues to haunt the crypto industry, even behind bars. Three years after the collapse of FTX, the fallen former boss resurfaces in Drake's new album. The Canadian rapper slips in several references to bitcoin and goes so far as to demand its release in an already viral punchline. Between media strategy, internet culture and the memory of a historic scandal, this musical release puts the FTX affair back at the center of discussions.

Drake puts Sam Bankman-Fried back in the spotlight

While the bitcoin rally may be stalling according to CryptoQuant, Drake this week unveiled three albums totaling 43 tracks, including Icemanproject on which the title appears “Dust”. It is in this song that the rapper evoked directly the former manager of FTX with a sentence that quickly circulated on social networks: “Samuel Bankman, free all my guys, yeah”.

A few lines later, the artist also describes himself as “a big name in crypto and bitcoin”an explicit reference to BTC and its past involvement in the crypto universe. The release of the project quickly attracted the attention of specialized media, especially since Sam Bankman-Fried is currently serving a 25-year federal prison sentence in California after being convicted of fraud linked to the collapse of FTX.

Among the important elements of this sequence:

• Drake directly quotes Sam Bankman-Fried in the song “Dust”;
• The rapper also asserts his image as a big name in the crypto universe;
• The former boss of FTX is still detained after his sentence to 25 years in prison;
• Donald Trump has already reportedly minimized the idea of ​​a presidential pardon.

The albums have already been widely criticized by several specialized media. The Guardian qualified this new series of pieces from “boring, overly busy disaster”. This mention comes in a sensitive context for Drake himself, already associated with several controversies linked to the crypto betting platform Stake.

Between rap culture and memory of the FTX scandal

Beyond the simple punchline, this reference shows to what extent Sam Bankman-Fried retains a special place in the collective imagination linked to cryptos. Few figures in the crypto industry have reached such a level of global notoriety before their fall. The former boss of FTX single-handedly embodied the explosion of digital fortunes during the 2021 bull market. His trial and then his conviction transformed his image into a symbol of the excesses of this period. The fact that an artist like Drake is still using his name in a mainstream song illustrates how the FTX scandal is now more than just financial.

This sequence also highlights the persistence of crypto references in the American music industry despite the sector's numerous setbacks. NFTs, bitcoin and blockchain gaming platforms have largely penetrated pop culture in recent years. Drake himself has long maintained this proximity to the ecosystem, notably through his collaborations with Stake. By associating his musical return with references as sensitive as Sam Bankman-Fried, the rapper plays as much on virality as on the capacity of these subjects to polarize audiences.

The episode finally reminds us that the major controversial figures of crypto continue to exist well beyond the courts and financial markets. For some, Sam Bankman-Fried remains the embodiment of a massive fraud that destroyed billions of dollars. For others, his name already belongs to internet mythology and contemporary popular culture. This ambiguity undoubtedly explains why a simple sentence in a rap song is still enough to revive discussions around the former boss of FTX.