Caroline Ellison was released today; what role did she play in the FTX collapse back then?

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Caroline Ellison is an adventurous math genius and Harry Potter fan, who was also a key player in the FTX collapse, the rising star of the alt-right.

Original Title: ''Queen Caroline': The 'Fake Charity Nerd Girl' Behind The FTX Collapse'

Original Authors: David Jeans, Sarah Emerson, Richard Nieva, Michael del Castillo, Forbes

Original Translation: Katie Gu, Odaily Planet Daily

BlockBeats Note: This article was first published on November 19, 2022. Today (January 21), according to the latest records from the US Federal Bureau of Prisons, Caroline Ellison, former Co-CEO of Alameda Research, will conclude her community confinement and be formally released.

In 2024, she was sentenced to 2 years in federal prison by a US court. In October 2025, she was transferred from a federal prison in Connecticut to community confinement. In December 2025, Caroline Ellison reached a final settlement with the US SEC and was concurrently slapped with a 10-year ban on executive and director roles.

For a long time, Caroline's personal image has been shrouded under the label of 'SBF's ex-girlfriend.' However, in the collapse of the FTX Empire, the role played by this math prodigy was far more complex than her private relationships. This article delves deep into her family background, upbringing, and her true footnote in the history of crypto's earth-shattering downfall. The original text is as follows:

FTX, besides SBF, had another key figure behind the scenes, the Co-CEO of Alameda, Caroline Ellison, who has always maintained a sense of mystery. (Just today, an FTX spokesperson stated that FTX has fired Gary Wang, Caroline Ellison, and Nishad Singh.) Caroline Ellison is a risk-loving math prodigy and Harry Potter enthusiast. She was also a significant player in the FTX collapse, an alternative right-wing darling.

In 2021, Caroline Ellison was asked if she had any advice for her younger self, and her answer was honest and brief: 'I would tell my younger self not to be so averse to risk and to believe in myself more.' This was her comment in an unpublished section of the Forbes 30 Under 30 Rich List application from before.

One year later, this statement was interpreted as the "epitaph" of one of the recent largest financial disasters, a disaster that Caroline herself was involved in leading. Caroline's Alameda, at the helm of which, was a cornerstone of the FTX business empire.

It is alleged that it was Alameda itself that engaged in speculative investments using FTX customer deposits, siphoning off billions of dollars unbeknownst to users. It was also Alameda that covered up this scheme as the hedge fund ensured that its assets trading on FTX bypassed its own balance sheet. In a bankruptcy filing, FTX estimates that there will be over a million creditors seeking redress. They were reportedly convinced to pour their life savings into the platform. Documents also reveal that Alameda Research disbursed three personal loans to FTX executives, with SBF borrowing $1 billion. Despite SBF owning 90% of the trading firm, when both FTX and Alameda went under, the one left holding the bag was Caroline Ellison.

Little public information is available about Caroline, but through conversations with eight people who knew her and unpublished details from her October interview with Forbes last year, we have pieced together an image of a quiet math nerd who rose through the ranks in the crypto space until FTX's collapse. Over the course of a few years, Caroline wholeheartedly partook in SBF's "bacchanalia" of financial excess, plunging into an ever-expanding whirlpool of bullshit, deceit, and despair. She did not respond to a request for comment on this article.

"There are many people who are very smart but may not excel in the chaotic world of trading—especially cryptocurrency." — Caroline Ellison, May 2022

Caroline Ellison was once a "star student." Ruth Ackerman, a math professor who taught Caroline at Stanford University ten years ago, described her as "smart, focused, and very mathematically gifted." She finds it unbelievable that Caroline got entangled in one of the largest fraud cases of the past decade.

Ackerman said in an interview with Forbes, "I found out because people started reaching out to me on LinkedIn to have me revoke my endorsement of her computer science skills."

Now, as the tragedy of the FTX bankruptcy gains more and more attention, with multiple U.S. agencies, including the SEC and the Department of Justice, announcing investigations, Caroline seems to be heading towards a nadir, her adventurous spirit leading to catastrophic outcomes.

During a podcast in May, she said, "Being able to face risks head-on is very important. Many people are very intelligent but may not excel in the chaotic trading world, especially in the cryptocurrency space."

"Their goal is to maximize wealth. They have never lived in a world without risks." — Early Alameda Employee

In March 2018, while working at the quantitative trading firm Jane Street, Caroline Ellison was approached by a former colleague with a proposal that would change her life.

While having coffee in California, SBF recommended her to join a new digital currency hedge fund, Alameda Research, he was overseeing. The fund would leverage the price differences of Bitcoin across various countries. SBF saw it as a perfect arbitrage opportunity. The trade would help him achieve his goal of making billions and donating to charity.

In an unpublished interview in October 2021, Caroline told Forbes, "I thought it sounded exciting at the time, but I really loved Jane Street, so leaving was a tough decision."

Nevertheless, Caroline stepped out of her comfort zone and formally entered the cryptocurrency space.

Both Alameda and FTX are led by SBF, the mastermind behind them. After spending two years at Alameda, SBF went on to create FTX, establishing what he believed to be a modern cryptocurrency trading platform. When SBF decided to leave Alameda and focus entirely on the rapidly growing FTX, Caroline took over as co-CEO of Alameda.

FTX's dramatic implosion, from being "asset-rich" to bankrupt in four days, shifted attention to Alameda's $10 billion in assets and allegations that the company used FTX's customer deposits for investment speculation. Several once pillars of the industry are now facing a similar fate. Despite daily headlines accusing him of years of misconduct, the spotlight has shifted from SBF to his inner circle, bringing Caroline into the public eye. In a male-dominated industry, she is a rare female leader.

In recent days, Caroline has faced intense backlash from cryptocurrency supporters, blaming her for Alameda's downfall. However, amid the harsh criticism, there is also a group defending her. A supporter of Caroline told Forbes that many defending her have gathered on the peer-to-peer platform Urbit created by computer scientist Curtis Yarvin. They believe Caroline is a scapegoat and claim that former co-CEO Sam Trabucco was the mastermind behind Alameda's internal collapse. Trabucco did not respond to a request for comment.

“It's like we really don't know what we're doing.” — When Caroline Ellison joined Alameda

Caroline's father, Glenn Ellison, is currently the head of the MIT Economics Department, and her mother, Sara Fischer Ellison, is a lecturer in the department. She grew up in a digitally charged environment in the suburbs of Boston. While other kids were playing with LEGO bricks, Caroline was learning Bayesian statistics before junior high. One year, instead of sending her father a birthday card, she gifted him an economic research report on the price of plush toys. Caroline was quoted in a previous Forbes interview saying, “I did indeed encounter a lot of economics knowledge earlier than others.”

Caroline is a natural mathematician, having participated in multiple women's math competitions. But her interests extend far beyond mathematics. In her senior year, she also received an award in the Linguistics Olympiad. She enjoys reading books and mentioned that her parents read her the first Harry Potter book when she was 3, and she read the second one herself at the age of 5. She identifies herself as a Ravenclaw, representing wisdom and wit.

In 2012, when Caroline arrived at Stanford University as a math major, her career aspirations were already well-defined. While adjusting to university life, she posted daily reflections on Tumblr.

When asked by Forbes last year about something she didn't learn in school but found helpful in the real world, she responded, “Almost everything. Like taxes.”

One thing she did learn is a philosophy known as effective altruism. This movement, popular in Silicon Valley, urges individuals to leverage data to maximize their efforts and positively impact the world. Pioneered by a group of philosophers including Will MacAskill, SBF said it was he who convinced himself to use his earnings for good and later joined the charity arm of the FTX Future Fund, resigning just last week. At Stanford, Caroline joined the campus's effective altruism club and became its vice president.

Now, there are doubts arising as to whether Caroline, SBF, and their cohorts truly believe in the tenets of effective altruism or if it serves as an effective way to mask their alleged misconduct. In a private chat released by Vox on Wednesday, a journalist asked SBF if his moral discourse was “largely a front,” to which SBF admitted. Caroline at one point seemed to have renamed her blog to “Fake Philanthropic Shut-In,” perhaps out of a sense of ironic self-awareness.

“For us, having two people to ultimately take responsibility for things is a good thing.” — Caroline Ellison, Co-CEO of Alamedia alongside Sam Trabucco

After graduating from Stanford, Caroline became a trader at Jane Street, where she met SBF. They bonded over a shared interest in effective altruism.

In 2018, after SBF convinced her to join Alameda, Caroline found herself at a chaotic startup. In an interview with Forbes, Caroline said, “We really didn't know what we were doing.” There, she also met SBF's close friends Nishad Singh, Gary Wang, and soon-to-join Sam Trabucco, all of whom would take on executive roles alongside SBF. They shared a common interest in effective altruism.

By the end of 2018, SBF moved the company's headquarters from Berkeley, California to Hong Kong. According to an early employee, SBF believed the city offered a favorable regulatory environment and with companies like Binance and Crypto.com present, Hong Kong was the obvious choice for Alameda. Over the next few months, the team commuted between six WeWork co-working spaces across the city, including one specifically used to store a couch.

But SBF's next move was already in motion, and with initial funding from Binance, he launched FTX in 2019. As Caroline immersed herself in Alameda and quickly rose to prominence in the crypto space, she began to excel at the trading firm, eventually becoming Co-CEO of Alameda alongside Trabucco in the summer of 2021. With a daily trading volume of around $5 billion, this role propelled Caroline to the forefront of the industry.

Shortly thereafter, Caroline and Trabucco made it onto the Forbes 30 Under 30 list. In an interview at the time, she said, “For us, having two people to ultimately take responsibility for things is a good thing.”

“I think I've been quite fortunate in some ways.” — Caroline Ellison, May 2022

Over the past two weeks, there has been much speculation about the relationship between Caroline and SBF, but SBF confirmed this in an interview with The New York Times, stating that the two no longer have a relationship. A report from CoinDesk stated that Caroline had been on multiple dates with SBF, they had been roommates, and their relationship was close to some extent, although the specifics were unclear.

Years ago, Caroline posted on Tumblr in an uncertain serious tone, stating, "After exploring an open relationship, she believes everyone should have a ranking for their partners, people should know where they stand in the ranking, and higher ranks should come with a nefarious power struggle."

Just as ambiguous as relationships among executives, the relationship between Alameda and FTX was also ambiguous, quickly overshadowing its sister company FTX. SBF courted investors such as Sequoia Capital, NEA, and Lightspeed Venture Partners, FTX saw a surge in customer deposits, surpassing one million users. However, even investors sometimes had no idea about Alameda's role.

According to FTX staff and employees of companies doing business with the exchange and Alameda, as Alameda gradually faded from the spotlight, Caroline almost became invisible. A co-CEO of a project funded by Alameda told Forbes, "Despite having an investment relationship with the trading firm, they have never interacted with her. Moreover, in most cases, Caroline seems content to stay behind the scenes."

According to a former Alameda employee, when Trabucco stepped down as co-CEO in April of this year, Caroline found herself with sole control over Alameda, and Trabucco left just months after publicly announcing his departure in August. In a tweet, Trabucco mentioned that the co-CEO role "burned him out" and he had recently been "doing nothing." This former Sasquehana trader graduated from MIT a year after SBF, expressing that over the past few months, he had "greatly reduced" his role and was on the verge of leaving.

Months later, everything began to fall apart. Last week, Binance CEO CZ announced that Binance would acquire FTX, rescuing it from a liquidity crisis. However, after due diligence, Binance quickly pulled out of the deal citing "improper handling of customer funds and alleged scrutiny from U.S. regulators." Within a few days, SBF's empire faced collapse, with several of his entities filing for bankruptcy, including Alameda.

Currently, the US SEC and Department of Justice, along with Bahamian authorities, are investigating the situation. Regarding how Alameda lost all client funds, FTX claimed to have stepped in to support the ailing firm. It has been reported that SBF's luxury penthouse in the Bahamas will be sold for $40 million. Caroline, who used to be a key figure behind SBF, is now bearing the brunt of the blame.

There are online rumors that Caroline plans to escape from Hong Kong to Dubai, as Dubai has no extradition treaty with the US, but her current whereabouts are unknown. Her last public statement was two tweets on November 6 defending the company's balance sheet against external criticisms.

6 months ago, during an interview with the crypto podcast El Momento, Caroline was asked if she would "make any changes if she could go back in time." At that time, the so-called cryptocurrency winter had already begun to have a cicada effect on many companies and markets, but FTX still had the liquidity.

She laughed and said, "I would definitely stay the same. I think in a way I've been quite lucky. I don't think if I went back, chose a different path, it would have resulted in such a good outcome."