In January 2022 FTX was worth thirty-two billion dollars. Its founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, slept on a beanbag, wore shorts to meet world leaders, drove a Toyota Corolla and promised to give almost all of his fortune away. FTX had its name on the Miami Heat's arena, a Super Bowl ad with Larry David, and Tom Brady as a shareholder.

Ten months later it was bankrupt, and around eight billion dollars of customer money was missing. This is the story of how a trading firm called Alameda Research got a secret back door into the exchange's code, how a leaked balance sheet and one tweet from Binance's CZ started a run, and how the most sophisticated investors in the world never asked where the money was.

RedInk Finance — finance stories, told as documentaries. New episode every week.

CHAPTERS
00:00 Cold open — 2 November 2022
01:41 Part I — Earn to Give
03:10 Part II — The Kimchi Trade
04:56 Part III — The Exchange
08:34 Part IV — The Back Door
11:04 Part V — Ten Days
14:20 Part VI — The Reckoning
18:15 Part VII — Why Everyone Believed

Narration is synthetic (AI voice). Archival footage and images are used for commentary and criticism. Nothing here is investment advice.

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