FTX is getting worse: the exchange was hacked at night, and Bankman-Frida's Alameda was controlled by a 28-year-old Potter fan

In continuation of yesterday’s article chronicling the reset of one of the largest crypto exchanges: the company is not doing wellare not getting better. On the contrary: it seems that the speed of her immersion into the abyss of hell and death is only increasing.

Caroline Allison. Admit it, you also immediately wanted to give her ten billion bucks so that she could manage them?

Expecto Bankrotum: which, let's say, hinted at the possible problems of the Alameda in advance

As you remember from my previous article about FTX,The problems initially arose not with the crypto exchange itself, but with the Bankman-Fried hedge fund Alameda Research. Apparently, Alameda invested so successfully in various crypto-wonderwaffles that it lost many billions of dollars on this - and that is precisely why it had to be “saved” with money from FTX clients.

If you're wondering who's so lucky theretraded into the red, then let me introduce you to the CEO of Alameda Research - 28-year-old Caroline Ellison. Ellison loves the Harry Potter books, but in general, it is not very clear what prompted Bankman-Fried to put her in charge of a fund with assets of more than $10 billion. After all, her only investment experience was a year and a half internship as a junior trader right after college.

Several videos withwith Allison: if you understand English by ear, I recommend watching, for example, this excerpt and also this clip. She, in general, openly says: “To be honest, I don’t understand at all what is happening and where we are investing - we are pouring gigantic sums into the most stupid ideas that I do not understand. Oh yes, and our risk management does not provide for stop losses that limit possible losses!”

And all her interlocutors on podcasts are like: “Ha ha ha, funny joke, you have a good sense of humor!” And now, probably, they are all looking back: “Wait, she wasn’t joking then, or what ?!”

UPD:There is also a wonderful tweet from a year and a half agofrom her: “Nothing makes you more aware of how dull and boring most of the ordinary human experience without substances is than regular use of [banned in the Russian Federation].” (P.S. We, of course, do not approve or recommend!)

FTX exchange decided to go bankrupt a little less than completely (despite previous statements)

FTX officially filed its paperwork on Friday.for bankruptcy under the so-called “Chapter 11”: this means that the company will continue to operate while new administrators are appointed to try to come up with a plan for how to “heal” it further. For exchange clients, this can hardly be called good news: most likely, if they manage to get some money back, this may happen only after several years and only partially.

Documents filled out by the exchange show that underAs many as 130 companies are planning to hide under the bankruptcy umbrella at the same time. Moreover, there is not only Alameda itself and the international division of the exchange, but also FTX US, about which Sam Bankman-Fried wrote on Twitter a day ago in the caps “FTX US USERS ARE FINE!” (at this moment Morgan Freeman’s voice should sound off-screen: “In fact, they were not fine...”).

As part of the beginning of Sam's bankruptcyThe FTX CEO was quickly removed from his post, and a new manager with the beautiful name John Jay Ray III was appointed. Fun fact: it was this Ray III who once steered the bankruptcy of Enron in the early 2000s - it was one of the most ambitious accounting scandals in the financial world in history.

Jeff Skilling, the head of Enron, then sat down for 14 years. How much do you think Bankman will get?

By the way, regarding the condition of Sam himselfBankman-Fried: if it was previously reported that it had decreased by 94%, but SBF still had about a billion stuck, then now Bloomberg boldly uses the word “reset to zero.” I’m worried - who will warm up the curls in the zone, with what means?

FTX appears to have been hacked (this is not a drill)

More than $600 million overnight from Friday to Saturdaywas transferred from FTX wallets... to someone else's wallets. They write on Twitter that they began to quickly exchange money for the decentralized stablecoin DAI, which cannot be frozen technically (unlike centralized stables like Tether - which previously managed to block $46 million worth of FTX coins at the request of the competent authorities).

Official Telegram support channel for FTX, it seemsconfirms that this is a hack attack - they posted the following message: “FTX has been hacked. FTX applications are infected. Delete them. Do not go to the FTX website, otherwise you may catch a Trojan."

Personally, I have some doubtsversion about external hackers. Rather, it seems likely that some employees of the crypto-exchange, embarrassed from all sides, decided “the barn burned down - burn the hut!”. Since everyone steals, why not bite off a tidbit for yourself under the guise? ..

A Twitter account called “Autism Capital” can do no wrong!

Crypto-infection: it is already among us

In yesterday’s article I wrote that most of allIn such situations of large-scale bankruptcies of systemically important players, financiers are afraid of financial contagion (contagion) - when the problems of one company spread along the chain to its counterparties, they “infect” their partners, and so on. So: it’s not just FTX that’s starting to cough.

In particular, a crypto-lending companyBlockFi has frozen withdrawals from its customers' accounts. They write that customer funds in the amount of almost $4 billion were stored on the ill-fated FTX exchange (which means that it seems that they were reset to zero on a general basis).

A few months ago, Sam Bankman-Friedhelped out the then bursting BlockFi - FTX provided them with a loan of $ 400 million. Then it could be attributed to altruism and the desire to prevent the collapse of the entire crypto-financial system as a whole. But in the light of recent events, there is a feeling that Sam's goals were somewhat different.

Well, that is:you're kind of investing $400 million of your own money to "save" BlockFi. And then you negotiate with this company so that they keep $4 billion of customer funds on your FTX exchange - and they, in turn, can be poured into the sinking Alameda ... In general, you get the idea.

How many more such crypto companies thatremained due to FTX or Alameda - it is not yet possible to reliably estimate. This means that new "surprises" on this topic will appear in the next few months almost every day.

I think it is with this attitude that cryptans look to a brighter future.

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Skeletor will be back next week with more news about FTX. If you don’t want to miss my next articles, I recommend subscribing to my RationalAnswer TG channel (well, I’ll be pleased too!).