PANews reported on October 4 that Cointelegraph published an article reporting several highlights of the first day of the trial of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF).

1. SBF was obviously thinner, and his iconic messy hairstyle was replaced with a shorter hairstyle; the encryption blogger pointed out that SBF was obviously "not as nervous as usual, and did not shake his legs. The only time he spoke was to say "yes" to the judge and occasionally looked at the jurors. The rest of the time he consulted with his lawyer or typed on his laptop. "He looks more like a criminal now."

2. The media conference room was packed with reporters, crypto KOLs and skeptics. One reporter said he had never seen such a court before, and it was like a "crypto dance party."

3. Potential jurors shared their experiences in cryptocurrency. For example, one juror said they worked with a company that invested in FTX and Alameda and lost money. Another potential juror said he had invested in cryptocurrency and lost money. One juror said he was not sure if he could look at cryptocurrency impartially and was removed from the list. Another juror even asked the judge if SBF could be sentenced to death. At the end of the meeting, the judge said: "We now have a sufficient group of qualified jurors, 50. A total of 18 jurors will be selected, including 12 jurors and 6 alternate jurors."

4. Prosecution witnesses: An assistant U.S. attorney read out a list of witnesses who may testify in court. It includes some expected names, such as Caroline Ellison, Gary Wang, Nishad Singh, Ryne Miller, Constance Wang, SBF's parents Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried, and Anthony Scaramucci, founder of Skybridge Capital. Several institutions are also on the list, including Jane Street Capital, Sequoia Capital, BlockFi, Genesis, Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, Binance, Nexo, Guarding Against Pandemics (SBF brothers' non-profit organization) and Voyager Digital.

5. The judge said the trial is expected to last about six weeks, but it may end in a shorter time. By the end of today, the judge had not successfully finalized the jury, and he expected that this would be completed on the morning of October 4th local time, after which both parties are expected to conduct opening arguments totaling about 90 minutes.

Related reading: Former close friend to appear in court to accuse SBF, list of other people appearing in court revealed