An in-depth look at FTX and Alameda shows UST's collapse in May increased their reliance on FTT, leading to $4B outflows from Alameda to FTX in June and July
Nansen's on-chain forensics supply the missing timeline behind the collapse that CoinDesk's reporting began mapping: the balance-sheet document showing Alameda's largest asset was $3.66B of unlocked FTT revealed the exposure, but not how it got there. The new analysis fills that gap — UST's May collapse drained a revenue source, pushing both firms onto FTT, with $4B moving from Alameda to FTX across June and July.
Creditors, lawyers, and regulators now have a transaction-level map of the $4B June–July transfers, converting what was inferred from a leaked balance sheet into traceable on-chain evidence.
Blockchain-analytics firms like Nansen move from market-intelligence vendors to de facto forensic infrastructure for bankruptcy proceedings and investigations into FTX and Alameda.
Exchange-issued tokens held as assets by affiliated trading firms face repricing across the industry, since FTT's role as Alameda's dominant collateral is now documented as the failure point.
Third-order effects
If the pattern holds, crypto collapses will increasingly be adjudicated through public chain data rather than the affected firms' own disclosures, raising the evidentiary bar for any exchange that mixes customer deposits with a proprietary trading arm.
The entanglement of an exchange, its own token, and its affiliated market maker strengthens the case for separating those functions — the structural question now facing regulators assessing the fallout.
The trend: Crypto failures are shifting from disclosure-driven scandals to on-chain forensics cases, with analytics firms supplying the evidence base for insolvency and regulatory outcomes.
13) On-chain analysis doesn't verify that user funds were siphoned from FTX to Alameda, but the unusually large $FTT inflows from FTX post-Luna/3AC point to a likely scenario Read our full report for a detailed breakdown of transactions & list of wallets: https://nsn.ai/...
23/ Caroline offers to OTC buy all of Binance's FTT at $22. Scrutiny of the on-chain data revealed that it was highly unlikely that Alameda had the liquidity to purchase Binance's FTT when Caroline's tweeted publicly. https://twitter.com/...
5) Large $FTT transactions between FTX, Alameda, and Genesis Trading: 2021 Sept: Regular inflows/outflows from FTX and Alameda to Genesis 2021 Dec: Alameda sent 38M ($1.7B at the time) to Genesis, which could've been an OTC deal or used as collateral for a loan https://twitter.co…
3) Launch of $FTT and early distribution - FTX controlled 280M (~80%) of the 350M total supply - 27.5M (~46% of seed & private rounds) went to Alameda's FTX deposit wallet - Alameda was the sole beneficiary of the company tokens & most unsold non-company tokens https://twitter.co…
1) What happened to FTX? Here's our detailed report of their close ties to Alameda from May 2019 until their recent collapse. Some key findings below 🧵👇 https://nsn.ai/...
12) Nov 7: Markets resort to panic mode $451.1M was withdrawn from FTX in a 7-day period We discovered a list of unusually large withdrawals prior to FTX's collapse Nov 8 - 11: As we know, FTX withdrawals paused; Binance bailout fell through; FTX filed for bankruptcy https://twit…
8) Mid-June: A total of 163M $FTT (~$4B at the time) was transferred from Alameda to FTX This is in line with the Reuters article revealing a $4B loan from FTX to Alameda backed by $FTT tokens, Robinhood shares, and other assets https://twitter.com/...
“Overall it is likely that at least 307m tokens out of 355m tokens (86%) of all FTT were initially controlled by Alameda or FTX” https://twitter.com/...
Pour yourself a coffee and dig into the latest @nansen_ai research article on FTX + Alameda. Lots of juicy details: https://www.nansen.ai/... https://twitter.com/...