Unpublished Tweets Show SBF Had Plans to Shutter Alameda in 2022

Fear, uncertainty, and doubt around Alameda Research’s relationship with his FTX cryptocurrency exchange caused Sam Bankman-Fried to consider shuttering the trading platform in 2022, according to an unpublished tweet thread revealed in his trial on Monday.

“Going forward, Alameda will continue to not do nefarious trading activity on FTX, because it won’t do any trades on FTX. Or anywhere else,” said Bankman-Fried in the unpublished posts. “Alameda Research is dead. Long live FTX.”

Concerns around the relationship of Bankman-Fried’s companies were too great to justify Alameda’s existence, according to the drafted posts, and the fallen crypto founder blamed FTX’s competitors for spreading that fear.

Sam Bankman Fried maintained in the thread that these concerns are not true. “I can say that until I’m blue in the face, but in the end I have to face reality: the PR cost is not worth it.”

Alameda Research had plans to remain active as an investor and infrastructure developer, according to the posts, while taking a step back as a general exchange liquidity provider.

The unpublished thread, made public by a former Alameda Research employee, came about in Sam Bankman-Fried’s trial. He’s been accused of orchestrating a large-scale fraud at FTX, which led to the evaporation of billions of dollars worth of customer funds.

Wednesday is the second day of testimony for Caroline Ellison, Alameda Research’s Chief Executive Officer, and former love interest of Sam Bankman-Fried. On Tuesday, Ellison pleaded guilty and claimed Bankman-Fried directed her to commit certain crimes, according to The New York Times.

The FTX collapse rocked the cryptocurrency ecosystem, causing a price crash from which the space has not fully recovered. Today, the price of Bitcoin hovers around $27,000, still depleted from the 2022 highs of $65,000 before the crash of FTX.

Ellison joins the ranks of other former FTX and Alameda executives, such as Gary Wang and Nishad Singh, who have agreed to cooperate with prosecutors in the case against SBF.

Coindesk published a report in November of 2022 casting doubt on the strangely close relationship between Bankman-Fried’s crypto exchange and trading platform, the first domino to fall in this collapse. It is unspecified when exactly this unpublished tweet thread was written, as well as the reasons for not posting and going through with the shuttering.