Who is Sam Bankman-Fried’s wife? His private love life
Sam Bankman-Fried oversaw the rapid rise and spectacular fall of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX. Bankman-Fried was projected by some to be the world’s first trillionaire; following the collapse of FTX, he lost his $17 billion fortune in a few days. “I’m deeply sorry that we got into this place and for my role in it,” Bankman-Fried told employees. “I fucked up.” Indeed, Mr. Bankman-Fried, indeed.
Sam’s failures at FTX are numerous and could lead to criminal or civil prosecution. The Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Justice are looking at FTX’s dealings with Alameda Research, a trading firm run by Sam Bankman-Fried’s rumored love interest.
Bankman-Fried is not married but was dating former Alameda Research CEO, Caroline Ellison
Bankman-Fried keeps his love life away from the public eye, but we can confirm that he isn’t married.
Sam often ran his company from a luxury property in the Bahamas alongside executives Nishad Singh, Gary Wang, Ramnik Arora, Caroline Ellison, who was the CEO of Alameda Research, and five others.
Sources told The New York Times that Bankman-Fried and Ellison were romantically involved, and so were other occupants in the five-bedroom penthouse. Bankman-Fried told the outlet that he and Ellison were no longer dating.
“The whole operation was run by a gang of kids in the Bahamas,” an insider told CoinDesk. “They’ll do anything for each other,” another source said.
Ellison was promoted to CEO of Alameda despite having limited trading experience
In July 2020, Ellison appeared on the FTX Podcast to discuss her life and work. Ellison revealed she was the daughter of two economists and her obsession with Harry Potter books:
“I was pretty obsessed with Harry Potter as a kid. I started, I was 3 when the first book came out, my parents read it aloud to me, and when I was 5, the second book came out, I refused to wait for my parents to read it, so I read it myself.”
Ellison said that after graduating from Stanford University with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics, she spent 19 months as a junior trader at Jane Street. Caroline said she got into trading because she ‘just didn’t really know what to do’ with her life.
Bankman-Fried, a Jane Street alum, convinced Ellison to join Alameda. Caroline said she felt terrible leaving Jane Street after such a short time, but working for Alameda was ‘too cool’ of an opportunity to let slip. Ellison, a trader at the time of the interview, said she only needed basic arithmetic to trade:
“I absolutely could pull it off without my math degree. I used very little math. I use a lot of elementary school math arithmetic, probability, but not really any of the advanced stuff I learned in college.”
Caroline said she discovered she had more trading experience than most traders at Alameda. Ellison said she was surprised at the system in Alameda that allowed her to make ‘really uncertain’ decisions. She described the experience as ‘terrifying.’
Ellison rapidly rose to CEO of Alameda, which isn’t that surprising considering she was one of the firm’s most experienced employees. Or, perhaps her romance with Bankman-Fried facilitated her meteoric rise.
A source told The New York Times that Caroline ran Alameda, with Bankman-Fried contributing to decisions on big trades. Alameda was supposed to operate separately from FTX, but the outlet’s report suggests their operations were intertwined.
A guest who visited the FTX complex in the months leading up to the platform’s collapse revealed that Ellison sat within view of computers displaying FTX’s data.
