Alameda Research Pulled $204M From FTX Prior to Bankruptcy Filing

The result from an analysis published by blockchain firm Arkham Intelligence shows that FTX’s sister trading firm Alameda Research successfully withdrew $204 million from the exchange’s United States arm. This happened even before the exchange and its other 130 associates filed for bankruptcy. 

Altogether, the funds were pulled from eight different addresses of FTX U.S. in an assortment of digital assets with the majority as U.S. dollar-backed stablecoins.

They were either in Tether (USDT), USD Coin (USDC), Binance USD (BUSD), or TrueUSD (TUSD) totaling about $116 million. Another $49.49 million was in Ethereum (ETH) while $38.06 million were in Wrapped Bitcoin (wBTC).

FTX, Binance Receive Funds From Alameda

For Ether, $13.87 million was sent to an active trading wallet which is still initiating token transfers even today while the others were sent to the now-bankrupt FTX.

Rival digital exchange Binance equally received $10.4 million from the entire fund in USDT. With all of this information, it was discovered that Alameda Research withdrew the most funds from the exchange before it crashed and eventually filed for bankruptcy.

“The withdrawn wBTC was sent to the Alameda WBTC Merchant wallet, and then bridged in its entirety to the BTC Blockchain,” said Arkham Intelligence. As per the published report, out of the $204 million that was transferred, about 69% which is approximately $142.4 million was specifically sent to FTX International and this infers that “Alameda may have been operating to bridge between the two entities.”

It is unsure whether the $13.87 million in ETH was sent to 0xa20 as part of a trade, or it was just an internal fund transfer within Alameda Research. John Ray III who was appointed after the founder and former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of FTX Sam Bankman-Fried resigned confessed that this is the worst he has seen in his corporate career.

The new CEO, John Ray III emphasized the “complete failure of corporate controls” along with a shortcoming in the aspect of providing reliable financial information. Apart from the bankruptcy which FTX Group including FTX Trading, FTX US, under West Realm Shires Services, and Alameda Research have filed in the United States, FTX Bahamas has also filed for a Chapter 15 bankruptcy.

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