Ever since the FTX collapse, CEO Sam Bankman-Fried and Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison have been on everyone’s radar. They are trying to figure out how these two managed to move funds so easily, enjoyed such praise and worth in the market and eventually led to the biggest meltdown of recent times. And most importantly, how no one saw it coming.
Allegedly Alameda owed $10 billion to FTX, which SBF gave to Alameda using customers’ funds to cover up the bad trades and losses by Alameda. Or we can say losses made by Ellison.
Just 5 days before filing for bankruptcy, Ellison tweeted that they had over $10 billion in assets. And assured users not to worry, but they are now officially bankrupt, one official liquidator is liquidating their assets, and they are about to have legal troubles with authorities worldwide.
She was a mathematics genius, a Stanford Graduate with a Degree in Mathematics. But claimed that using math in the position of CEO of Alameda was not crucial, “Absolutely could pull it off without my math degree” further in the FTX podcast, she said that the math she had to use was “very little math” she further added to it saying “almost like elementary school.”
This is awkward coming from a CEO of a financial institution.
As a child, she loved reading, especially Harry Potter books but eventually found her calling in mathematics. The daughter of economists and professors at MIT Glen Ellison and Sara Fisher Allison. She had a very academically inclined childhood, and her father was even used to coaching her middle school mathematics team. She was a mathlete and competed in linguistics as well.
Just food for thought is that Sam Bankman-Fried also graduated from MIT in 2014, and her father is in the same department where SEC chair Gary Gensler once taught. He is alleged of providing loopholes and insider information to FTX and is being questioned about how all this happened under his watch.
An insider from FTX, with the condition of anonymity, said that Sam and Ellison had only one dream – to change the world. And we’re willing to do anything for it. They “were just willing to justify anything to do so” and “Like they really did view themselves as like the people who are worthy. They considered themselves smart, informed and capable of making big choices.”
After graduating from Stanford in 2016, she joined “Jane Street Capitals,” where she worked as a junior trader for 19 months and met Sam Bankman-Fried. And she started working as Alameda Trader, and after a few years, she was made co-CEO in July 2021. And in August took over as CEO after Sam Trabucco stepped down, giving reasons for spending time with family and whatnot.
She has also been alleged of consuming amphetamines in her own tweets, and along with SBF, they were part of Stanford’s Altruism Group; their philosophy revolves around using rational thinking in philanthropy.
She is also an advocate of polyamorous relationships and openly spoke about them in her Tumbler blog.
Her rise from a Stanford graduate to working as a junior trader, to becoming CEO of Alameda and eventually part of a duo responsible for the biggest crypto meltdown in recent history. Her story deserves a book.