How exactly are his parents able to provide a surety for $250M? Do they have assets worth that much? If not, what's even the point of setting bail at $250M, if you only need to put up $4M in collateral?

Why does he get to do this, while someone with a $50,000 bail has to either put up the entire cash amount, or pay 10% in interest to a bondsman?

The court must be convinced that the parties involved are good for it or they would not have accepted the surety. The point of bail is just to ensure you show up to court, not to collect a windfall of profit for the state.

> his parents are additional surety for the $250M

This is an odd phrase.

So what happens if SBF disappears? Do the parents lose their $2M house? Lose their $2M house and become $248M in debt? Go to jail?

What keeps the whole family from simply going on a sudden vacation to Dubai and letting the court take their house? Losing one's childhood home is sad, but stolen Bitcoins can still buy a very nice replacement.

His parents are reported to have a $16M Bahamas property in their names, so they can just go to the other houses they bought with funds from their college professor salaries.