Odd Lots

Understanding the Collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried's Crypto Empire

Nov 17, 2022

Evgeny Gaevoy, founder of Wintermute, and James Block, an independent researcher behind the Dirty Bubble Media newsletter, dive deep into the catastrophic collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried’s empire. They discuss the intricate relationship between FTX and Alameda Research, shedding light on market-making dynamics and liquidity challenges in crisis. Gaevoy shares firsthand insights while Block revisits his early warnings about the disaster. Together, they explore the implications for crypto regulation, trust, and the push toward decentralization in finance.

51:51

Creator website

Episode guests

James Block

Evgeny Gaevoy

AI Chapters

Episode notes

Intro

2min

Aftermath of FTX: Insights and Revelations

7min

Alameda Research: Market Maker Dynamics

4min

Lessons from FTX: Decentralization and Trust

17min

The Importance of Digital Transformation in Today's Economy

2min

Exploring Crypto's Transparency Paradox and Fraud

2min

Unraveling the Collapse of FTX and Celsius

16min

Cryptocurrency Crisis: The FTX Fallout

4min

Analyzing the Rapid Collapse of FTX and Industry Debates

3min

The collapse of the Sam Bankman-Fried empire is gigantic, sprawling and fast moving. While details are still coming out, it already ranks among the most prominent corporate disasters of all time and has left the entire crypto community reeling. To better understand the role that FTX played in the industry and how the exchange started to unravel, we speak with two guests on this episode. First, we have Evgeny Gaevoy, the founder and CEO of the crypto market-making firm Wintermute, to explain how he used the FTX platform and how he understood its relationship with SBF's trading firm, Alameda Research. Then we speak with independent researcher James Block, author of the Dirty Bubble Media newsletter, and one of the first observers to blow the whistle on the FTX disaster.

Stay tuned. On Friday, we'll have a special follow-up interview with Bloomberg Opinion's Matt Levine, who also appeared with Sam Bankman-Fried on the now-infamous “yield farming” episode of Odd Lots in April 2022.

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