Caroline Ellison

Caroline Ellison is the former CEO of Alameda Research and a former executive at cryptocurrency exchange FTX.

Ellison got her education at Stanford University and started her working career at Jane Street Capital, a global prop trading firm trading over $17 trillion in securities in 2020.

In 2018, while working at Jane Street Capital, Ellison met Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), a former Jane Street employee himself.

SBF persuaded her to leave Jane Street and join his Alameda Research trading firm, a hedge fund that specialized in trading digital currencies.

The company would call Berkely California home initially, then move to Hong Kong, and then ultimately settle on the Bahamas as changes to crypto regulation in Hong Kong became less favorable for operating crypto businesses.

In 2019, SBF went live with the cryptocurrency and derivatives exchange FTX, acting as CEO for both FTX and Alameda.

In October 2021, SBF wanted to reduce his role at Alameda to focus on the crypto exchange, so he stepped down as CEO and appointed Ellison and Sam Trubucco as co-CEOs.

Their appointment led to Forbes featuring the pair in Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list of successful executives in 2022.

Only a few months later, in April 2022, Trubucco stepped down as co-CEO, leaving Caroline Ellison as the sole CEO of Alameda Research.

Following the liquidity crisis at FTX that resulted in its filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, Alameda followed suit and also filed for bankruptcy just days later.

Recent revelations point to SBF, Ellison, and other FTX and Alameda executives being involved in moving billions worth of FTX customer funds to Alameda to cover bad trading bets and liabilities on existing loans taken out to invest in other businesses.

Ellison was fired from her position at FTX following the Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing and appointment of a new FTX CEO.

On Dec 21, 2022, Caroline Ellison, along with Gary Wang, former CTO of FTX, were both charged by the SEC with defrauding investors by manipulating the price of FTT, causing the valuation of Alameda’s FTT holdings to be overinflated, and subsequently causing the value of collateral based on FTT to be overstated. The SEC goes on to say that Ellison was directly involved in misappropriating FTX customer funds to cover Alameda’s trading activity.

The following day, Caroline Ellison and Gary Wang pleaded guilty to all charges put forward by the SEC related to the collapse of FTX.

Related Terms

Alameda Research

A crypto hedge fund trading firm started by FTX exchange founder and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) that was known for making huge bets on other crypto companies and businesses. Alamada Research was at the heart of the FTX liquidity crisis that resulted in both FTX and Alameda filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in November of 2022.

Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF)

At one point one of the richest people in crypto, Sam Bankman-Fried and cryptocurrency exchange FTX have come crashing down to earth in a matter of days following reporting that his Alameda Research hedge fund was undercapitalized and he allegedly took customer funds out of FTX illegally and funneled them to Alameda Research.

FTX

FTX is a centralized cryptocurrency exchange (CEX) headquartered in The Bahamas and founded by Sam Bankman-Fried and Gary Wang in 2019. On November 11th, 2022, FTX filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and appointed a new CEO, Jon Ray. Sam Bankman-Fried stepped down as CEO amid accusations of mishandling $10 billion in FTX customer funds by transferring them from the exchange to his hedge fund, Alameda Research, to help fund floundering operations.

John Ray

The new CEO of bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX, most well known for taking over the Enron bankruptcy, the Texas-based energy firm and the 7th largest public company in the United States at the time.

Changpeng Zhao (CZ)

Changpeng Zhao, also known simply as CZ, is a Chinese-Canadian entrepreneur most well known as the founder and CEO of Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange. After the collapse of FTX, and after committing $2b BUSD to a recovery fund to help distressed crypto assets, CZ is seen by some as the new savior or white knight of rypto.