Caroline Ellison

Career While attending Stanford, Ellison began her career in quantitative trading with two internships at Jane Street, a proprietary trading firm in New York City.

Ellison and Bankman-Fried bonded over an interest in effective altruism and remained in contact. In February 2018, while visiting the San Francisco Bay Area, Ellison met Bankman-Fried for coffee, and he pitched her on joining Alameda Research, a cryptocurrency hedge fund co-founded in November 2017 by Bankman-Fried and effective altruism colleague Tara Mac Aulay. Ellison joined the following month. She said her "blind leap" was based on excitement over arbitraging cryptocurrencies and the potential to further her pursuit of earning to give. When she joined, Ellison had more experience than most of the other traders. She became the sole CEO of Alameda Research in August 2022 after Trabucco stepped down.

In November 2022, Ellison, together with Sam Trabucco, was listed on Forbes 30 Under 30, a pick the publication regretted a year later, placing Ellison on its Hall of Shame, featuring ten picks it wished it could take back. On 6 November 2022, after CoinDesk raised concerns about the balance sheet of Alameda Research and its relationship with FTX, Ellison said that the balance sheet information which had been released only included some of Alameda's assets and that the firm had more than $10 billion of additional assets. According to anonymous sources cited by The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, Ellison was in a video meeting with employees on 9 November 2022; she admitted there that FTX had used customer money to help Alameda meet its liabilities and that she, Bankman-Fried, and two other FTX executives, Nishad Singh and Gary Wang, were aware of the circumstances. Ellison was terminated from her position by John J. Ray III after FTX, Alameda Research, and more than 100 related companies filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. of law firm WilmerHale as her lead attorney. On December 18, Ellison pleaded guilty in the Southern District of New York to conspiracy to commit wire fraud on customers of FTX, conspiracy to commit wire fraud on lenders of Alameda Research, wire fraud on lenders of Alameda Research, conspiracy to commit commodities fraud, conspiracy to commit securities fraud, and conspiracy to commit money laundering. On that day, FTX co-founder Gary Wang also pleaded guilty to several charges. A transcript of her plea hearing was unsealed on December 23, revealing she had admitted to judge Ronnie Abrams that she and others conspired to steal billions of dollars from customers of FTX while misleading its investors and lenders. Ellison told Judge Abrams that Sam Bankman-Fried and other FTX executives had received billions of dollars in secret loans from Alameda Research. As a part of her plea deal, she agreed to make restitution of an amount to be decided by the courts.

In October 2023, Ellison testified for the prosecution in the fraud trial of Bankman-Fried. On September 24, 2024, Ellison was sentenced to serve two years in prison and ordered to forfeit $11 billion to the court. Ellison began serving her sentence at a prison in Connecticut in early November 2024. In December 2024, The Washington Post reported that Ellison's sentence had been reduced by several months. She was released into community confinement in October 2025, and became a free woman on January 22, 2026 after serving fourteen months.

Personal life Unspecified former employees reported accounts about a romantic relationship with colleague Sam Bankman-Fried. Business Insider said that Ellison's alleged relationship with Bankman-Fried was singled out by CoinDesk. Bankman-Fried told Good Morning America his relationship with Ellison was brief.

Ellison, along with FTX senior employees, contributed to the FTX Foundation's Future Fund, which planned to fund philanthropic endeavors, before ceasing operations when its own senior staff resigned. The staff cited inability to honor grants and concerns about the legitimacy of its funding, leaving some beneficiaries concerned as to whether they would have to return grant money.

In June 2026, she was spotted on a shuttle bus to an Effective Altruist convention in Berkeley.

Recognition 2022: Named in Forbes 30 Under 30 – North America – Finance 2023: Named in Forbes "Hall Of Shame" – North America – Finance