Sam Bankman-Fried’s Alameda Empire faced challenges before downfall

A report from the Wall Street Journal suggests that financial crypto firm Alameda Research, owned by Sam Bankman-Fried, experienced problems years before the collapse of the FTX exchange.

Alameda allegedly made significant profits through arbitrage in Japan, but saw these profits decline as the price gap closed in 2018.

The firm’s trading algorithm also reportedly made incorrect predictions on price moves, leading to losses. Alameda also reportedly lost two-thirds of its assets, worth a total of $30 million, in the spring of 2018.

However, the company saw profits of $1 billion in 2021 as crypto prices reached all-time highs.

In 2021, Alameda invested $100 million in a Kazakhstan-based Bitcoin mining company and $1 billion in Genesis Digital Assets, a US-based Bitcoin mining company.

The 2022 crypto market collapse led to Alameda facing issues with lenders requesting their funds back, and Bankman-Fried has been accused of using FTX customer funds to try and save Alameda.

Both Alameda Research and FTX filed for bankruptcy protection in November 2022, and Bankman-Fried has pleaded not guilty to fraud and other criminal charges, with a trial set for October 2.