Last week, crypto markets were rattled as the crypto exchange FTX–and all of its 133 related companies, including Alameda Research–imploded. Sam Bankman-Fried’s (SBF’s) entire crypto empire went from being worth billions to virtually nothing in a blink of an eye. How did it happen? The following timeline or chronology lists the key moments.
Wednesday, November 2, 2022, 9:44 AM CDT: CoinDesk’s Ian Allison exposes something fishy: the balance sheet of Alameda Research, the venture firm of the SBF empire had most of its assets in the FTX token FTT ($3.66 billion of “unlocked FTT” and “$2.16 billion pile of “FTT collateral”), plus $8 billion in liabilities, including $7.4 billion in loans.
Sunday, November 6, 9:47 AM: Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) tweets that Binance is liquidating its FTX token, FTT, which comprised a portion of $2.1 billion, due to the “recent revelations that have come to light,” presumably referring to CoinDesk’s story on Alameda Research’s sketchy financial sheet.
same day: 10:30 AM: Caroline Ellison, CEO of Alameda Research, offers to buy all of Binance’s FTT at $22 per token in order to “minimize the market impact.” But CZ declines.
Monday, November 7, 2022, 12:38 PM: Bankman-Fried tweets a thread trying to calm investors in FTX. In a now deleted tweet, SBF stated: “FTX has enough to cover all client holdings. We don’t invest client assets (even in treasuries). We have been proccessing all withdrawals, and will continue to be. Some details on withdrawal speed: twitter.com/FTX_Official/s…(banks and nodes can be slow).
Tuesday, November 8, 2022: A day later, SBF shockingly announces that he’s agreed to have Binance acquire FTX. Apparently, FTX was in deep trouble, with not enough funds to handle the clients’ liquidations.
Wednesday, November 9, 2022, 3:00 PM: Binance tweets that it is backing out of the deal after conducting due diligence on FTX and seeing the financial mess of FTX.
Thursday, November 10, 2022, 8:13 AM: SBF admits he “fucked up,” but asserts that none of the financial trouble affects FTX US, which he still claims is “100% liquid.”
Friday, November 11, 2022, 8:30 AM: Just a day later, SBF tweets that he filed bankruptcy for FTX, FTX US, Alameda Research (and it was later disclosed a total of 134 FTX related companies). FTX’s assets were not fine. FTX US wasn’t 100% liquid.
same day, 12:16 PM ET: Wall Street Journal‘s Vicky Ge Huang, Alexander Osipovich, & Patricia Kowsmann report, from an unnamed source, that “FTX lent billions of dollars worth of customer assets” to Alameda Research.