--- title: "Alameda Secretly Had Value of Negative $2.7 Billion, Insider Tells Court" description: "Caroline Ellison told the court yesterday that back in 2021, Alameda Research already had an alleged $2.7 billion hole in its balance sheet." date: "2023-10-11" modified: "2023-10-11" authors: - name: "Maggie Harrison Dupré" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/mharrison" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/caroline-alameda-value-was-negative" categories: - "Blockchain" - "Future Society" tags: - "caroline ellison" - "ftx" - "sam bankman-fried" - "the digest" --- # Alameda Secretly Had Value of Negative $2.7 Billion, Insider Tells Court ![Caroline Ellison told the court yesterday that back in 2021, Alameda Research already had an alleged $2.7 billion hole in its balance sheet.]() *\Image: Michael M. Santiago via Getty / Futurism\* ## Empty Pockets, Big Bets Remember when basketball superstar Steph Curry was [encouraging you]() to use the crypto exchange FTX to buy and trade digital currencies, even if you had absolutely no idea what you were doing? Or when Tom Brady was [telling you]() that FTX was the "safest" and "easiest" way to get into the crypto game? Well, around the same time that [Curry]() and [Brady]() were inking their lucrative FTX contracts, Alameda Research — the hedge fund and sister company to FTX that held a central role in the exchange's finances and ultimately its financial demise — was compensating for an alleged $2.7 billion hole in its balance sheet and making risky bets with cash it didn't have. Or so says former Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison, whose bombshell-smattered testimony continues to reveal new and [bizarre]() alleged details about the volatility of FTX's financial tightrope-walking and the purported risks taken by defendant Sam Bankman-Fried, the since-disgraced founder of both FTX and Alameda. Ellison, who is both an ex-employee and [ex-girlfriend]() of Bankman-Fried, has leveraged a number of allegations against her former lover since taking the stand yesterday, including the serious claim that Bankman-Fried ordered her to [doctor Alameda's balance sheets illegally](). According to Ellison's testimony, [as *The Wall Street Journal* reports]() from the courtroom, Alameda's 2021 balance sheets were very seriously in the red. And yet, in spite of that multibillion-dollar financial gap, Ellison told the court that Bankman-Fried pushed her to make risky venture assessments and investments anyway — meanwhile asking Ellison to exclude certain financial assets from a 2021 analysis of the firm's assets and liabilities. ## Sam Coins Specifically, according to the *WSJ*, Ellison told the court that she was commanded to exclude Alameda's holdings of a cryptocurrency dubbed "Sam Coins" from this 2021 analysis. As the report reads, these cursed-sounding "Sam Coins" were comprised of "cryptocurrencies closely associated with and predominantly owned by Bankman-Fried," and included the likes of "FTX's native token FTT, Solana, and Serum." The extremely dubious-sounding tokens were said to be worth $10 billion on paper. The Monolopy-money-feeling to these "Sam Coins" aside, however, the mention of FTT feels significant. FTX's November implosion — the crisis that led to today's ongoing criminal trial — is understood to have been triggered by a [mass selloff of FTT coins]() launched by Binance CEO Changpeng "CZ" Zhao. This selloff quickly plunged Alameda into catastrophic collapse, and swiftly thereafter, FTX was crumbling alongside its sister firm. And now, almost one year later, the [entangled CEOs]() of each bankrupted venture sit across from one another in a courtroom, battling it out over how, exactly, FTX and Alameda both ended in ruin. **More on Ellison's testimony:** [*Caroline Ellison Says Sam Bankman-fried "Directed" Her to Commit Crimes*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've reported extensively on the rise of AI as a cultural and business force shaping the media industry, and more broadly how those dynamics are changing how we all consume and share information and relate to one another. I'm also fascinated by public health policy and ethics, the role of emerging tech in politics and governance — and the powerful people and forces at those intersections — climate change, and the environment. My investigation on Sports Illustrated's use of AI-generated authors with fictional biographies won a 2024 Mirror Award for "Best Story on Media Coverage of Artificial Intelligence in Journalism and the Media" from Syracuse University's SI Newhouse School, I contributed to Niemen Lab's 2025 Predictions for Journalism series, and I've discussed my work for Futurism during appearances on NPR, CNN, the BBC, the CBC, and more. I grew up in rural Pennsylvania and attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where I played Division I field hockey for the Minutewomen as a midfielder. Since then, I've lived in New Orleans, Louisiana and Manhattan, New York. I spend my free time running, reading, perusing archival fashion, and searching for the world’s best negroni. I also have a debonair tuxedo cat, Westley, who's named after "The Princess Bride." ### Author social links [Bluesky]()