As someone who works in the crypto industry, I wanted to create a timeline of events based on my perspective of the situation. Keep in mind that multiple people have their own timeline, including Messari, and that each one will be tackling the situation from a different bias. If you feel like something I said was incorrect or could be misinterpreted, please do not hesitate to reach out.
This timeline will be going in chronological order, from current and most recent developments to the very beginning. All times are in Pacific Standard Time. I will be using a wide variety of emojis, including š© for red flags we should have looked out for, š„ for a Tweet, š to represent funding rounds.
Current: SBF is still in the Bahamas. The Bahamas Government admitted they ordered SBF to direct the $600+ million that was āhackedā to cold storage.
2021-now, Alleged But Not Proven: The rift between Binance and FTX as a result of the breakup increases due to competition. SBF, with his connections in the media, may have planted hit pieces on CZ, leading to more negative press surrounding Binance. The Binance money laundering story may have been one of them.
November 17, 2022: The bankruptcy court filings in the state of Delaware are officially revealed. There is a serious level of irresponsibility in running the business. Even the ex-Enron CEO John Ray III admits to not having seen this level of corporate failure.
https://twitter.com/GRDecter/status/1593272102047580161
https://s.wsj.net/public/resources/documents/FTXFILING.pdf
November 16, 2022: An interview with Vox reveals a serious psychopathic nature of SBF. He admits to supporting current socially progressive ideas simply to win. Additionally, he doesnāt actually believe regulations help, further revealing he was simply expressing support for regulations to curry political favor.
November 14, 2022: The New York Times releases an article about FTX and how SBFās empire collapsed. The relatively light-sounding article, especially compared to its harsher treatment of other tech companies, only fuels more suspicion of SBFās connections with the media and powerful politicians.
Questions arise from SBFās donations to the Democratic party to his parentās connections to powerful regulators like SECās Gary Gensler. Additionally, this seems to be a win for citizen-journalism, as players like Cobie and Autism Capital continue to shed useful information on the situation.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/14/technology/ftx-sam-bankman-fried-crypto-bankruptcy.html
November 13, 2022: I believe this is the time when SBF began to formally āgo total berzerkā, as if the simple apology for losing customer funds werenāt enough. This was when the cryptic Tweets started coming out:
https://twitter.com/SBF_FTX/status/1591989554881658880
November 11-12, 2022: An alleged āhackā of FTX drains up to $600 million worth of customer funds, nowhere to be seen again. At that point in time, I personally believed it was a malicious inside job of some kind.
https://twitter.com/Mudit__Gupta/status/1591297558890295297
November 11, 2022: FTX, FTX US, and Alameda formally file for bankruptcy. SBF steps down, and ex-Enron CEO John Ray III steps into his shoes as CEO of FTX.
https://twitter.com/SBF_FTX/status/1591089317300293636
November 10, 2022, 6:13 AM: SBF apologizes.
https://twitter.com/SBF_FTX/status/1590709166515310593
November 9, 2022, 1:00 PM: Binance decides not to acquire FTX after due-diligence.
https://twitter.com/binance/status/1590449161069268992
November 8, 2022: Cobie livestreams about the FTX situation along with Do Kwon and Martin Shkreli.
November 8, 2022, 8:09 AM: Binance offers to acquire FTX after a full due-diligence.
https://twitter.com/cz_binance/status/1590013613586411520
November 7, 2022, 1:38 PM: A now-deleted Tweet shows SBF saying that FTX is fine and that assets are fine, in an attempt to appease customers.
There was some speculation that only the FTX International customers were affected and not the ones in the US. This would, however, be proven false very quickly.
https://twitter.com/CryptoSlash5/status/1590235124977000449?s=20&t=GBge5g28RHhKGRz0xRWUQQ
November 6-7, 2022: FTX pauses withdrawals. Hard to determine at what time.
November 6, 2022, 8:03 AM: Alameda Research CEO offers to buy Binanceās position at 22 a token, which was approximately the market value at the time. This suggests a lower limit and a certain amount of desperation. š©
https://twitter.com/carolinecapital/status/1589287457975304193
November 6, 2022, 7:47 AM: Binance liquidates remaining FTT tokens. CZ suggests it may have to do with the support for controversial regulation.
https://twitter.com/cz_binance/status/1589283421704290306
November 4, 2022: Another blogpost from Dirty Bubble Media, titled āIs Alameda Research Insolventā, is dropped. Many people suspect this post led to CZ liquidating Binanceās FTT treasury.
It demonstrates that the FTT token was artificially pumped by FTX buying it with customerās assets, then having those gains marked on their balance sheet. These positive gains would be picked up by investors (like pension funds), who would then give out loans that are collateralized by said tokens. These loans would then be used to donate money to politicians, secure naming rights, etc.
https://dirtybubblemedia.substack.com/p/is-alameda-research-insolvent
November 2, 2022: A Coindesk article suggests that a leaked FTX balance sheet shows an unusual level of closeness between FTX and Alameda Research. This only fuels more suspicion, since Alameda was known to invest in highly skeptical projects with little or negative return.
October 28, 2022: SBF goes on Bankless with ShapeShift CEO Erik Voorhees to debate the regulations surrounding crypto. Samās incoherence and lack of professionalism only fuels more distrust in FTX. š©
October 19, 2022: SBF expresses his support for the DCCPA on Twitter, a series of crypto regulations that has major implications on DeFi usage in the USA. His opinions are objected by several prominent crypto community members, including the Bankless team. š© š„
https://twitter.com/SBF_FTX/status/1582835426116575235
Banklessās response:
https://twitter.com/RyanSAdams/status/1582842277948362753
September 2022: FTX US President Brett Harrison steps down, for no clearly stated reason. š©
https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/ftx-president-brett-harrison-steps-down-2022-09-27/
August 2022: Sam Trabucco, Alameda Researchās Co-CEO, steps down for no stated reason. š©
https://blockworks.co/news/top-alameda-exec-steps-down
July 2022: BlockFi is in trouble. Once again, SBF offers to buy them out. As Brian Armstrong mentioned on the All-In Podcast, this could also be a š©, since it suggests recklessness on Samās part, as well as suspicion on where his money came from.
June 2022: In the aftermath of the LUNA collapse, crypto markets begin to take a steeper dive. Coinbase announces layoffs of 18% across teams. Exchanges Celsius and Voyager announce bankruptcy. SBF offers to bail them out. Alameda had already committed $500 million to financing Voyager.
January-May 2022: In the meantime, while FTX was gaining attention, Alameda Research was placing extremely risky bets on speculative assets. š© They had lost $500 million in capital from Magic Internet Money and were also heavily investing in the Luna ecosystem, which ended up collapsing in May of 2022.
https://stormgain.com/blog/luna-falls-due-wonderland-scandal
January 2022: š FTX raises a $400 million series C from Softbank Vision Fund and Temasek. Now valued at its peak of $32 billion.
This fundraise reveals how many ātrustedā players actually believed in him, from Sequoia to the Singapore government.
https://trungphan.substack.com/p/ftx-the-32b-implosion
December 2021: š„ SBF Tweets about the roadmap for FTX and the crypto industry as a whole, including a possible regime for regulations. This can be seen as another š©, since it signifies a more regulatory perspective on the crypto industry than most other crypto builders. While companies like Coinbase at the time were struggling with the SEC, SBFās FTX were opening up the idea of working with said regulators.
One theory as to why SBF had such different opinions was that he viewed crypto from a purely trading and profit maximization perspective. Many builders like Brian Armstrong and Ryan Selkis believe in cryptoās utility: The ability for individuals to economically empower themselves by using a currency not controlled by any cabal or government. But SBF saw more of the market making side of things. Such regulations would be more beneficial to his business.
https://twitter.com/sbf_ftx/status/1475567126165532676
October 2021: š FTX raises a $420.7 million series B from Ontario Teachersā Pension Plan. Now valued at $25 billion.
July 27, 2021: Binance distance itself from FTX. In exchange for ownership of the company, Binance now has a treasury of FTT tokens.
https://decrypt.co/76810/behind-the-breakup-of-ftx-and-binance
July 2021: š FTX raises a $1 billion series B from Sequoia. Now valued at $18 billion dollars. A now-archived part of the Sequoia website shows a now-regrettable article about SBFās āsavior complexā.
June 2021: FTX fully acquires the naming rights to an arena in Miami, FL, after spending $135 million.
October 2020: The US Presidential Election. FTX is one of the largest donors to the Biden 2020 campaign. Possible š© given this may be seen as a way to curry favor from a new presidential administration.
https://www.opensecrets.org/2020-presidential-race/joe-biden/contributors?id=N00001669
2020: The COVID-19 pandemic causes an increase in activities from home, and with the combination of stimulus checks printed from several governments, interest in crypto activity increases. FTX benefits, and global volume on the exchange increases.
https://blog.ftx.com/blog/mid_year_review_2021/
January 2020: FTT Token whitepaper released. The goal of FTT was to serve as a backbone of FTX, where customers who hold FTT can get discounted tx fees and can be used as collateral for future positions.
https://whitepaper.io/document/502/ftx-token-whitepaper
From the Etherscan smart contracts, it seems like a standard ERC-20, without any additional modifications.
https://etherscan.io/token/0x50d1c9771902476076ecfc8b2a83ad6b9355a4c9#code
December 2019: š FTX raises a corporate round from Binance. Binance officially has a percentage ownership in FTX.
August 2019: š FTX raises a $5 million in seed funding from diverse VCs as Galois, Kenetic, and Consensus Lab
May 2019: FTX Founded
January 2018: Alameda Research solidifies market arbitrage opportunities
November 2017: Alameda Research Founded