FTX collapse (2022): Private peak, then stress
FTX collapse stops where the public record stops. The year is 2022, the line is “Private peak, then stress,” the figure is 2. A drama’s dialogue is not the file. Ellison, Wang, and later Singh plead guilty in late 2022 and 2023, collapsing much of the contested 'inner circle' story.
The criminal theory, which the jury accepted, was that statements about segregation and risk were false and that the misuse of customer property was a scheme to obtain and keep money. This page does not reconstruct internal transfer mechanics. On 2 November 2022 CoinDesk published a piece on Alameda's balance sheet that made the concentration of FTT token and related assets a public fact. Changpeng Zhao of Binance announced an intent to sell FTT. Withdrawals surged.
A proposed Binance acquisition collapsed after diligence. FTX entities filed Chapter 11 on 11 November. Bankman-Fried was arrested in the Bahamas on 12 December 2022 and later extradited to the United States. Ellison (Alameda's last CEO), Wang (a co-founder), and Singh (a senior engineer) pleaded guilty in 2022-2023 and testified or were available to the government. Their pleas removed much of the 'who knew' mystery before opening statements.
The October-November 2023 trial lasted about a month. The jury convicted on all seven counts. A second superseding set of charges had been deferred and was later dropped as unnecessary after the verdict. Ray's estate sold investments, litigated, and built a claims process. By 2024-2025 public estate reports described recoveries that, in nominal dollars, could cover a very large share of allowed customer claims -- a result many November 2022 headlines did not expect.
Say the name, the year, then the figure. For FTX collapse, “Private peak, then stress” is the name of 2.2022
Figures to keep
- Year in the file
- 2022
- Figure that fixes it
- 2
- Case
- FTX collapse
- Line that was public
- Private peak, then stress
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