About

David Yaffe-Bellany is a technology reporter for the New York Times, covering the crypto industry.

Most recently, he’s chronicled the downfall of Sam Bankman-Fried and FTX, breaking a series of stories about the criminal investigation into Bankman-Fried, his bail negotiations, his frantic final days at FTX, his group chat with other crypto executives, and his investments in the media company Semafor and the unknown hedge fund Modulo Capital. He also landed the first interview with Bankman-Fried after FTX’s implosion.

Before that, David was a legal reporter for Bloomberg News and Businessweek, where he wrote magazine stories about subjects as varied as the movement to de-radicalize extremists and the business struggles of professional tennis. He’s also covered the food industry and general business news at The Times. He wrote “The Three Abductions of N.,” a Sunday Business cover story about a shadowy network of ex-cops and private detectives who charge parents tens of thousands of dollars to retrieve abducted children. He also investigated working conditions at the luxury fitness chain Equinox, broke news about former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn’s escape from Japan, and wrote more whimsical stories about contraband haggis and the chicken sandwich shortage at Popeyes.

During the first months of the pandemic, David and a colleague at the Times wrote a series of seven front-page stories about the impact of the virus on the American food system, from the rampant food waste on farms to the deadly outbreaks in meatpacking plants. Their reporting helped trigger a grassroots movement to stop farm waste and prompted Democrats in Congress to demand export and pricing data from the meatpacking industry.

In the summer of 2018, David reported from the U.S.-Mexico border for the Texas Tribune and TIME Magazine, chronicling the aftermath of the Trump administration’s family separation policy. He has also covered crime and local politics for the New Haven Independent and the Toledo Blade. And he has freelanced for the Atlantic, the New Republic, the Washington Post and the Columbia Journalism Review.

David graduated from Yale University with a B.A. in English. He served as managing editor of the Yale Daily News; during his tenure, it was named the best student newspaper in the country by the Society of Professional Journalists.