Troubles at Sam Bankman-Fried’s Alameda Began Well Before Crypto Crash

Sam Bankman-Fried built the cryptocurrency exchange FTX on the reputation of his trading firm, Alameda Research LLC.

Alameda was applying Wall Street-style wizardry to the crypto world—and outsiders thought it was winning big. But little was known beyond the firm about its trades, which included a lucrative early bet involving bitcoin in Japan. Alameda had no outside investors and didn’t disclose its performance.