SBF’s Testimony Was Necessary Risk for Defense With Few Options

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was facing a mountain of evidence—including some damning testimony by people who were once his closest professional and personal confidants—when he decided to take the stand in his own defense at trial over the cryptocurrency exchange’s catastrophic collapse.

In some cases, a defendant doesn’t need to take the stand. They can rely instead on the prosecution’s “beyond a reasonable doubt” burden by exploiting gaps in the government’s proof to persuade a jury—or at least one juror—to vote not guilty.

But Bankman-Fried’s wasn’t such a case.

There was very little to lose, given the weight of the ...