On-Chain Transactions and Their Impact
Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), the former CEO of FTX, made a series of lesser-known on-chain transactions that had significant consequences for the crypto industry.
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stETH Sale: SBF sold $75 million of staked ETH (stETH) in January 2022, leading to a depeg event that triggered bank runs on Celsius and Three Arrows Capital (3AC).
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NFT Purchases: SBF used FTX customer funds to buy non-fungible tokens (NFTs) with questionable utility, including CarolineDAO NFTs.
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Wash Trading: SBF and Alameda Research engaged in wash trading to boost the visibility of SBF’s holdings.
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‘Test’ NFT Sale: SBF created and sold a ‘test’ NFT for $270,000, possibly using customer funds.
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RAY Token Sale: SBF sold part of 2 million RAY tokens he received, even though they were meant to be vested.
Other Notable Transactions
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Shiba Inu (SHIB): SBF helped boost SHIB’s price while building a large position, then dumped his tokens, causing the meme coin to plummet.
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SUSHI Token: SBF offloaded 35,000 SUSHI tokens while claiming he hadn’t sold or shorted the coin.
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FTT Token: SBF wrapped and rewrapped FTT to gain more liquidity, and publicly promoted the token to boost its value.
Alameda’s Activity
Alameda Research’s on-chain activity was relatively dormant until FTX’s Director of Engineering created a bug that allowed the trading firm to withdraw unlimited funds from FTX’s account.
