Alameda Research withdrew $204M ahead of bankruptcy filing

Alameda Research withdrew over $200 million from FTX.US before it filed for bankruptcy, according to analysis from blockchain firm Arkham Intelligence disclosed on Nov. 25. 

In a Twitter thread, Arkham revealed that Alameda Research, FTX’s sister company, pulled $204 million from eight different addresses of FTX US in a variety of crypto assets, the majority of them stablecoins, in the final days before the collapse.

Arkham analysed flows from FTX US in the final few days before the collapse, finding that Alameda withdrew the most funds, at $204M.

Below is a diagram of withdrawals to Arkham-identified entities from FTX US.

n.b. this thread regards FTX US assets only, not FTX International. pic.twitter.com/QFPVlVIWhO

— Arkham | Crypto Intelligence (@ArkhamIntel) November 25, 2022

Among the withdrawn funds, $116 million, or 57.1%, were in stablecoins pegged to the US dollar, including USDT, USDC, BUSD, and TUSD. Arkham’s analysis also showed that $49.49 million (24.2%) of the funds was in Ether (ETH), and $38.06 million, or 18.7%, was in wrapped Bitcoin (wBTC). 

“The withdrawn wBTC was sent to the Alameda WBTC Merchant wallet, and then bridged in its entirety to the BTC Blockchain.”, said Arkham, adding that of the $204 million transferred, $142.4 million, or 69%, was sent to wallets owned by FTX International, “suggesting that Alameda may have been operating to bridge between the two entities.”

Of the Ether transferred, $35.52 million was sent to FTX and $13.87 million was sent to a large active trading wallet. The firm noted that it’s “unknown whether the almost 14M in ETH was sent to 0xa20 as part of a trade, or as an internal fund transfer within Alameda.”

Another $10.4 million was sent to the rival cryptocurrency exchange Binance.

In the initial bankruptcy filing to the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, FTX new CEO John Ray III described the situation as the worst he had seen in his corporate career, highlighting the “complete failure of corporate controls” and an absence of trustworthy financial information.

About 130 companies in the FTX Group – including FTX Trading, FTX US, under West Realm Shires Services, and Alameda Research – filed for bankruptcy in the United States on Nov. 11, following a “liquidity crunch” after a series of tweets triggered a sell-off of FTX Token.