Is the former Alameda CEO or key figure who escaped before FTX went bankrupt and disappeared mysteriously?
Original author:Jaleel，BlockBeats
The SBF trial entered its second week and faced multiple serious criminal charges. The trial involved a series of details of insider trading and misappropriation of funds, and also reunited three key witnesses.
As the co-founder of FTX and the right-hand man of SBF, Gary Wang has won the trust of SBF, but today he has made it clear in court that he hopes to avoid jail by pleading guilty and cooperating with the investigation, although the federal prosecutor has not given him any guarantees . Except for the witness Gary Wang,A key figure and pending witness in the FTX case is Trabucco, the former co-CEO of Alameda Research. He left the company three months before the FTX incident and cleverly avoided this disaster.
As the trial progresses, the friendship the three men once had no longer exists. Their testimony will be key to deciding the fate of the SBF.
Former FTX co-founder Gary Wang served as a witness in court and was the first full-day witness to testify. During the trial, Gary Wangs testimony always attracted close attention from SBF, who often bowed his head and remained silent, with unnatural movements in his body language.
SBF once allowed Alameda to withdraw funds unlimitedly; as early as 2019, Alamedas function of stealing customer funds had been implanted into the FTX system; the insurance fund balance announced by FTX was generated by a random number generator... Gary Wang exploded every Each piece of material was as powerful as a depth charge.
When he learned that both Gary Wang and Trabucco were on the witness stand, SBF rubbed his eyes with his hands, and his memories went back to thirteen years ago, when the three met at a high school math camp.
Three gifted teenagers meet at a high school elite math camp
During a five-week math summer camp at Mount Holyoke College in 2010, MIT was training for math competitions that would later help the trio enter MIT’s math program in 2011, one of the world’s One of the most powerful math programs in the world.
It was here that three mathematical geniuses: SBF, Gary Wang and Trabucco met for the first time.
Not only SBF, Trabucco also often recalled this period of mutual sympathy. In an interview in 2020, Trabucco recalled that the mathematics competition helped him establish the quick thinking he needed as a trader, and his close friend SBF was in the mathematics camp. There was almost no sleep during this period.
This diligent quality has been retained until the start-up process of FTX. We all know that during the start-up period, SBF only slept 4 hours a day, and staying overnight in the office was commonplace.
SBF in Alameda office, picture source comes from the Internet
Reunited at MIT, the relationship between the three became closer
Thanks to good grades in math camps and math competitions, all three got into MIT, where Trabucco studied math and computer science, where he learned about Bitcoin and demonstrated leadership by serving as president of the Undergraduate Mathematics Association. Talent.
SBF is pursuing a bachelors degree in physics with a minor in mathematics. In addition to focusing on studying during school, SBF also participated in various student groups. He joined a fraternity organization called Epsilon Theta at school. This organization has about 20 people and often holds various events at the university. Parties such as drinking, solving puzzles, playing board games, etc.
While at MIT, SBF became roommates with Gary Wang and reconnected with Trabucco, further strengthening their relationship.The friendship between the three became even closer.
Gary Wang (third from left), SBF (third from right) Source: Bloomberg
After graduating from MIT in 2013, Trabucco spent two years at quantitative trading firm Susquehanna International Group, LLP, handling bond exchange-traded funds. Gary Wang worked for Google after graduating with degrees in mathematics and computer science. SBF worked for Bankman-Fried at Jane Street Capital, a proprietary trading company, trading international ETFs. After working here for four years, SBF moved to the Center for Effective Altruism (CEA) as development director.
After six years in circles, Alameda and FTX are back
In November 2017, SBF and Tara Mac Aulay of CEA co-founded quantitative trading company Alameda Research with funding from Jaan Tallinn and philanthropist Luke Ding. At that time, Alameda had more than billions of transactions flowing in the cryptocurrency market every day. Dollar.
Also in this year, Trabucco left the quantitative trading company Susquehanna, also began trading cryptocurrencies, and reconnected with SBF, which founded Alameda in San Francisco. In early 2018, SBF determined its own trading strategy, using the Bitcoin price difference between Japan and the United States to arbitrage, earning up to US$25 million per day. After attending a cryptocurrency conference in Macau at the end of 2018, SBF came to Hong Kong and founded the cryptocurrency derivatives trading platform FTX in April 2019.
In 2019, three young mathematical geniuses have already completed their transformation. Gary Wang holds the title of FTX Joint Venture and CTO, and Trabucco also joined Alameda as a trader. Six years after graduating from MIT, they reunited and returned for the birth of Alameda and FTX.
It is known that Caroline is the CEO of Alameda and also has a close relationship with SBF. In an interview with Forbes, Caroline once said that she had witnessed the friendship between the three people: I met Nishad Singh, Gary Wang, close friends of SBF, and Sam Trabucco who joined soon after. They all held administrative positions with SBF and were altruistic. ism also has common interests.
While working at FTX, Gary Wang has always kept a very low profile. Four former colleagues of Gary Wang, who asked not to be named, once said frankly that Gary Wang was a taciturn person who was addicted to programming. “Gary was always very distant from an employee perspective and was not usually in the office,” said a source familiar with Alameda and FTX’s business. “He loved working from home, and he was pretty much the only one who could. People. Everybody else always had to stay in the office, Gary was always the exception.”
Gary Wang, who has a net worth of nearly 5 billion US dollars, is very protective of his identity. There is only one visible photo from his back. When he was selected into the Forbes 400 net worth, no frontal picture was found. It was not until his arrest last year that his appearance Just became known to everyone.
Different from Gary Wangs low profile, according to multiple reports, Trabucco, who was a trader in quantitative risk analysis using mathematical models, is privately an avid poker enthusiast and gambler. He publicly boasted that he had been banned from three casinos because of his skill at counting cards at the blackjack table. Trabucco also stated on social media in January 2021 that he uses poker and casino strategies in his trading: Getting it right is a poker term that refers to when your odds are best... You want to bet more.
This is indeed consistent with his trading style at Alameda. As a quantitative trader, Trabucco pursues high-risk crypto trading at Alameda.
In addition, Trabucco is a crossword-building enthusiast and has been the constructor of the New York Times crossword puzzle. According to a previous episode of the FTX Podcast, as of 2020, Trabucco ranks eighth on the New York Times ranking of all crossword puzzle constructors.
Sam Trabucco social media, picture source from the Internet
One former employee said Trabucco was privately reserved but deeply engaged while working at Alameda. But he shows great enthusiasm for trading, data and strategy games.
Trabuccos hobbies and working methods have many similarities with FTX founder SBF. Both believe in high-risk trading concepts and are also keen on various intellectual games, which seems to have established their partnership. In October 2021, Trabucco was appointed as the co-CEO of Alameda, leading Alameda together with Caroline. Its good for us to have two people who can take ultimate responsibility for things. Caroline once said.
In 2020, Trebucco purchased a four-bedroom house in Wells, Maine, for $500,000, where it was revealed his parents now live. The next year, he purchased a 3,800-square-foot luxury apartment in San Francisco with views of the Golden Gate Bridge for nearly $9 million.
Got separated at the last important intersection
The good times did not last long. Not long after the three reunited and returned, on August 25, 2022, Trebucco posted a long tweet titled happiness on social media to bid farewell to Alameda.
“Last year, when SBF announced Caroline and I as co-CEOs of Alameda, our goal was to make the titles realistic – both of us had been CEOs for some time and we wanted our external image to reflect what we do. At this point. He stated that he had reached a stage in his life where he had to prioritize other things and could no longer have a strong day-to-day business at Alameda. Caroline would continue to be the sole CEO while he continued to accompany Alameda as an advisor.
Alameda was the most formative time of my life
Alameda is a great place, the problems we solve here are still the most interesting I know, and the team is still the most impressive I know. Its a great environment with a lot of Things to do and work can easily become your life for a long time, and I love it. Over the years, I cant think of anything more valuable than giving myself to Alameda. Honestly, being one of them Being a member is a stimulation, even though it is difficult, tiring and consuming.
My time at Alameda was the most formative time of my life. I learned how to think, I discovered how far I could push myself, I had the incredible experience of being in the trenches with lifelong friends, and we often won. Im going to miss it all - I really am.
Trebucco chose to leave in his tenth month as co-CEO of Alameda. Although he was reluctant to leave, Trebucco felt very happy, I have been really happy recently and spent a lot of time traveling, visiting friends and family, studying myself, etc. . I also bought a boat, which is cool. I needed to relax and I’m really, really happy.”
FTX bankruptcy application form document, image source comes from the Internet
In March 2022, Alameda made a $2.51 million transaction from American Yacht Group to purchase a 52-foot yacht, which was recorded in the bankruptcy filing.
Sam Trabucco on the yacht (picture on the right), source from the Internet
Driving this yacht named Soak My Deck, Trebucco began his own sea voyage in the following months.
We all know what happened in November 2022. News broke that FTX customer funds were misappropriated to Alameda Research, causing FTX to suffer a serious shortage of funds.
Over a three-day period, the market value of Alameda Researchs holdings fell sharply, leaving a significant funding gap. At the same time, there was a run on FTX. CZ sold his holdings of FTT tokens (Alameda Research holds a large amount of FTT), and in the following days there were approximately $4 billion in daily customer withdrawals.
The bigger yacht sank
On November 12, FTX filed for bankruptcy and reorganization. The yacht, which was larger than Trebuccos, sank, causing a great impact on the crypto market. To this day, the industry is still under the influence and shadow of the FTX thunderstorm.
SBF described the events based on his own memory, saying that he was not running Alameda and did not fully understand key events: “In 2017, I founded Alameda Research, a private cryptocurrency trading company. In 2019, I founded FTX International, a non-US cryptocurrency trading platform for non-US users. That’s when I started transitioning to FTX from my role at Alameda Research. In 2020 I started FTX.US, a US-based cryptocurrency exchange that does accept US users Cryptocurrency trading platform.
When reconstructing the events of 2021-2022, I relied on memory and inference, because I did not fully understand many key events when they occurred, and relevant data is not available now that would allow me to confirm or deny this. speculation at the time. In particular, I have not been running Alameda Research for the past year.
After that crash, I understand that Alameda had about $11 billion in assets and about $11 billion in liabilities, including its position in FTX. However, many assets are not very liquid and cannot be sold quickly. I think about $3 billion of assets are highly liquid, leaving a liquidity gap of about $8 billion.
This put extreme pressure on FTX and forced the exchange to issue margin calls to customers holding positions. Alameda Research was unable to provide sufficient liquidity for its margin calls and therefore defaulted on FTX International, which was unable to meet customer withdrawal requests.
SBF was taken to court, the source of the picture is from the Internet
In December 2022, SBF was arrested in the Bahamas. In the days before his arrest, SBF said in interviews that he regretted disappearing from the media during the time after the incident and that he could have done more. He kept emphasizing that he was remorseful and repeatedly said I messed up, indicating that he wanted to actively solve the customers problem. SBF, which has always claimed to be a follower of effective altruism, said it is still trying to do things that are good for the future of the world and deeply regrets that it messed up.
The man who escaped from FTX before it went bankrupt
The timing of Trabuccos departure was very clever. Just more than two months before SBFs crypto empire filed for bankruptcy and lost $8 billion in customer funds, he was lucky enough to be the man who escaped before FTX went bankrupt.
Another CEO of Alameda, Caroline, was not so lucky and was heavily criticized by many cryptocurrency supporters, accusing her of being the main culprit of Alamedas downfall. But amid the harsh criticism, a group of people also emerged to defend her.
One of Carolines supporters said many of Carolines defenders, who have gathered on Urbit, a peer-to-peer platform founded by computer scientist Curtis Yarvin, viewed her as a scapegoat and claimed that the former Trabucco was behind Alamedas internal collapse.
According to Nansen researcher Niklas Polk, FTXs potential loan to bail out Alameda was likely in response to Alameda suffering significant losses and/or very little liquidity at the time. Our data points suggest that such a loan could be This happened back in June when 3AC collapsed, about two months before Trabucco resigned, Niklas Polk added.
Netizens meme suggests that Sam Trabucco is watching the fire from the other side in the FTX case. The source of the picture comes from the Internet.
Trabucco, who did not respond to a request for comment, tweeted two related tweets amid the chaos at FTX:
On November 6, Trabucco retweeted one of Caroline’s tweets with his own words: “CZ If you want to minimize the impact of the market on your FTT sales, Alameda will happily buy it from you today for $22. Everything! Two days later on November 8, Trabucco tweeted: Lots of love to everyone - Im sure the past few days have been dark for many and I hope the road ahead is brighter .”
Since then, Trabucco has disappeared into the sea of people and has never appeared in the public eye again, whether online or in real life.
Where is Trabucco, the smartest guy in the room?
Some community members are looking for traces of him on social media, frequently asking Where is Trabucco? and even offering a reward.
Rainbow Runner（@RRunner 144 ) stated: “Friendly reminder, Trabucco is still free to walk and sail on the yacht you paid for through the FTX Ponzi scheme. Anyone who can find a 53-foot Suenos with hull number VHS 5 3A 3 JK 122 will be rewarded Points, I indirectly paid for the boat and was happy to know where it was.
But others pointed out that, aside from a brief mention of his relationship with AlamedaTrabucco, who was not named in any official indictment and was not accused of any wrongdoing, may have cooperated with the FBI and is likely living as a free man.
Crypto KOL IamNomad (@IamNomad) said on social media: Trabucco is a whistleblower and is protected by US officials. Please prove me wrong.
Recently inThere is also a post on Riddit asking about the whereabouts of Trabucco., there are many people’s comments below with the same views.
A netizen with the ID name btc_clueless said: I thought he was the first person to testify against SBF. His shoes have the least dirt: left FTX early before the shit hit the fan, and he was never Part of the inner circle. Must have known that Alameda had unlimited credit lines on FTX. Or maybe he didn’t know about the scaling event because Alameda was very liquid before Luna collapsed and didn’t need to dig deep into FTX user funds? There are a lot of unknowns.”
A netizen with the ID name DrinkYourWater 69 also guessed: He may be on some inconspicuous island. I bet he turned his back very early and told the FBI everything he knew in order to protect himself and get a lot of money. benefit.
But whether it was He knew EVERYTHING but was willing to walk away or he had already cooperated with the FBI,This crossword-puzzle aficionado, with the ability to take one step and see ten, is clearly the smartest guy in the room at FTX and Alameda.Some community members pointed out that the naming of the yacht Soak My Deck was a hint that the crossword enthusiast already knew that there was a problem with FTX and Alameda.
If I have learned anything at Alameda, it is how to make the right decision, and this is the right decision for me. Trabucco once said when he resigned from Alameda. This time, Trabucco was on the witness stand in the SBF trial. , but has not yet appeared in court.
After confronting Bo in court, they will eventually go to their own loss.
Nine months and 20 days after SBF was arrested, he appeared in court on October 3, local time. Prosecutors will accuse him of deliberately deceiving customers and business partners, including thousands of pages of internal documents and recordings.
In the first week of the SBF trial, Gary Wang played the most important witness and gave a lot of testimony. Gary Wang, who pleaded guilty in December 2022, pleaded guilty to wire transfer, commodities, securities fraud and other crimes and could face up to 50 years in prison. He could only hope to avoid prison by cooperating with the investigation in court, although federal prosecutors gave him no guarantees.
Wang testified that the functionality Alameda needed to steal customer funds had been built into FTXs computer systems as early as 2019. Additionally, Alameda received three privileges at FTX compared to other clients. Alameda was allowed to trade with more funds than he actually had in his account. As Wang previously testified, Alameda could withdraw unlimited funds from FTX.
Secondly, it also increased Alamedas credit line to $65.3 billion. This feature was later exploited to withdraw $8 billion worth of fiat and cryptocurrencies, more than the trading firm held in its accounts - the same shortfall FTX faced when it failed to fulfill customer withdrawal requests last November Much the same. Wang clarified that the additional funds came from FTX clients who did not explicitly choose to lend their funds.
Related Reading:The first trial of the FTX case: Relevant witnesses appeared in court, and SBF became the target of public criticism》
Gary Wang in front of the court. Source: Bloomberg
In the second week of the trial, Caroline also contributed a lot of testimony: “Although SBF publicly distanced itself from Alameda and claimed that it did not manage the company, SBF guided her on how to handle the FTT tokens held by Alameda and its venture capital. , and other important business decisions, instructing Alameda to borrow as much money as possible. This is something he talks about a lot. SBF has said he wants to buy more (FTT)... because he doesnt want to put any of our loans at risk , putting FTT tokens on the balance sheet may be somewhat misleading.”
During her testimony, Caroline couldnt help but mention Trabucco. The Assistant U.S. Attorney asked Caroline, When Binance said it wanted to buy back, how did the defendant respond? Who was involved in this discussion and where? Otherwise Binance would be in trouble, Caroline said: At the time, he was working in Hong Kong At the time, SBF, I, and Trabucco, who was Alamedas co-CEO at the time, participated in the discussions.
Many people are looking forward to whether the next witness after Caroline will be Trabucco, who has not spoken out for nearly a year. But it is almost foreseeable that Trabucco’s testimony will also point to SBF. Unlike the ending of SBF and Gary Wang, Trabucco, who left FTX before its bankruptcy, is believed by many to eventually be free.
Thirteen years ago, three talented young people who participated in an elite high school mathematics camp and were full of enthusiasm might not have expected that they would end up like this.
