The crash and burn FTX infographic

From the start of FTX back in 2019, things seemed to be heading to the moon and beyond. Sam Bankman Fried launched this crypto exchange out of the quantitative trading firm Alameda Research which he set up just two years prior. At first glance, all seemed well and good as the FTX grew to a valuation of $32 billion. The company saw a meteoric rise and within just 2 years they were nipping at the heels of the big boys as Binance and FTX were ranked as the #1 and #2 crypto exchanges in the world. 

Just a few months after founding FTX the company launched its own token called FTT. This too would blow up in value and on Sep 09, 2021 it reached an all-time high of $84.18 per token. 

Meanwhile, down in the depths of FTX and Alameda Research things were starting to fizzle and boil. The two companies that seemed to be separate entities were actually being run as one, and the management was squandering investors’ money at an unimaginable rate. It was all destined to come crashing and on 11 November 2022 Bankman-Fried filed chapter 11 bankruptcy for FTX and Alameda Research. 

Here is how it all went down:

After all this chaos, John J. Ray III, the man who stepped in after the Enron fiasco, took over as CEO to try and salvage what might be left of FTX. His revelations have shocked the financial world, discovering things like the complete absence of proper record keeping and the use of QuickBooks to do accounting for this multi-billion dollar company. It is not looking all too likely that any of the investors that had their money in FTX will ever see a single dime.

In the wake of all these discoveries, FTX co-founder Gary Wang pleaded guilty to 4 charges, while former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison pleaded guilty to 7. Sam Bankman Fried was released to his parents after posting $250m bail and is currently awaiting trial.