Crypto analytics firm Nansen is turning to on-chain data to take a deeper look at the relationship between embattled crypto exchange FTX and its affiliated trading firm Alameda Research.
In a new report, Nansen says it conducted a blockchain analysis of Sam Bankman-Fried’s two companies amid allegations that FTX was started to raise funds for Alameda.
“This research leverages Nansen’s labeling heuristics to track known wallets of the involved entities and verify their actions on-chain, to make sense of what actually happened during the FTX-Alameda debacle.”
Nansen says the analysis shows close on-chain ties between FTX and Alameda since the beginning.
“FTX created FTX Token (FTT), a token for their platform, involving Alameda since day one. The two of them shared the majority of the total FTT supply which did not really enter into circulation.”
The report reveals how Alameda benefited from the rising value of FTX Token.
“The initial success of Alameda, FTX, and the meteoric rise of FTT most likely led to a rise in the value of Alameda’s balance sheet. This high balance sheet value of the FTT positions was likely used as collateral by Alameda to borrow against.”
Nansen says Alameda appears to have used FTT as collateral to take out loans. The analysis shows that there were significant outlaws of the token from Alameda to FTX at the height of the Terra (LUNA) and Three Arrows Capital (3AC) situation.
“If the borrowed funds were used to make illiquid investments, FTT would become a central weakness for Alameda.
Based on the data, the total $4 billion FTT outflows from Alameda to FTX in June and July could possibly have been the provision of collateral that was used to secure the loans (worth at least $4 billion) in May / June that was revealed by several people close to Bankman-Fried.”
An analysis of blockchain data by crypto compliance firm Argus also finds that Alameda stocked up on crypto assets that were eventually listed on FTX.
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