Question:

Analyze what Alameda is experiencing. Rumors over the weekend began swirling that alameda research is on the brink of insolvency.

Observe net in and outflows of USD tokens from known Alameda or FTX accounts throughout different chains. Are they going somewhere specifically? Are there any signs of potential insolvency?

Note any other interesting trends or events you see.

Overview of analysis:

In this investigation, the inflow and outflow of USD tokens on Alameda or FTX have been determined. This analysis contains two major parts named:

• Tracking inflow and outflow for Alameda or FTX on Ethereum
• Flow track of Alameda or FTX on Solana

Methodology:

The data provided by Flipside has been used to handle this analysis.

This following parts used to handle this investigation:

• Step 1: Find the addresses related to the Alameda and FTX

  Use dim_labels where label ilike '%alameda%' or label ilike 'ftx%'

• Step 2: select USD token as USDC, USDT, DAI, BUSD and TUSD

• Step 3: Use the address of Step 1 and track the inflow and outflow of tokens selected on Step 2

• Step 4: Estimate the net flow of USD tokens on Alameda and FTX by Step 3

• Step 5: Find out the popular sources for transferring USD token from them into Alameda or FTX

• Step 6: Find the popular destination for outflow of USD token from Alameda or FTX to them

• Step 7: Repeat steps 1 to 6 for Solana ecosystem

The time period of this analysis is set to start of October 1st, 2022.

About Alameda and FTX:

FTX (FTX.com) is an institutional-level digital currency derivatives exchange that was established in May 2019 in Hong Kong. This exchange, built with the slogan "by traders and for traders", introduced its brand with the first derivative products of its kind in the cryptocurrency industry. Shortly after its launch, the FTX exchange was ranked among the top five derivatives exchanges in terms of trading volume and received positive reviews. This exchange quickly gained popularity among retail and professional traders of crypto derivatives.

FTX exchange was originally developed by Alameda Research, a trading company founded in 2017. The company manages $100 million worth of digital assets and is one of the top market makers for BitMEX, OKEx and other derivatives exchanges. ==Alameda Research was founded by Sam Bankman-Fried, a former professional trader at Jane Street Capital's international ETF fund, and Gary Wang, a former developer at Google. Mr. Wang and Mr. Benkman formed a highly professional team of crypto and cryptocurrency trading experts who helped them build the FTX platform.==

The FTX exchange includes a wide range of tools and trading products, some of which are completely unique to this exchange and have been designed and developed by its development team. FTX exchange is primarily a derivatives exchange; That is, users do not actually trade the underlying assets. Instead, in most of the exchange's trading products, users are trading a contract for a fixed asset or buying a token that represents another asset or currency. The Allamanda Research and FTX team have created some of the most unique and innovative commercial products on the market.

Part 1: Track Alameda or FTX accounts on Ethereum

Findings:

Now lets track the most popular destinations for outflow of USD tokens from Alameda or FTX accounts:

• As can be seen, the Binance and Coinbase have been dominated the destination of outflow USD tokens but Binance has huge share compared to Coinbase.
• The highest outflow transactions for USD token from Alameda or FTX accounts happened on November 7, 2022.
• From the volume of transfer point of view, the highest outflow volume for USD tokens into the Binance occurred on November 1st, 2022.

Findings:

In December 2019, Binance invested a large amount of money in FTX in an attempt to acquire major shares. Although the final amount was not announced, this multi-million dollar deal is a testament to the quality of the FTX.com platform and its business infrastructure.

• According to the above statement and as can be seen the most popular CEXs that users sent USD token from them into the Alameda or FTX is Binance by over 60% share.
• Since the start o November, the trend of inflow from Binance into the Alameda or FTX accounts increased.

Findings:

First of all lets track the inflow and outflow of Alameda or FTX on Ethereum blockchain since October 1st.

• The transactions related to the outflow of USD tokens from Alameda or FTX has larger share then inflow transactions.
• The dominance token on transfers to or from Alameda or FTX account belong to USDC stable coin as can be seen.
• The highest volume of inflow and outflow from Alameda or FTX occurred on November 7, 2022.
• Since last days of October 2022, the cumulative net flow of USD token gone negative and its shown the highest volume of outflow rather then inflow.

Part 2: Track Alameda or FTX accounts on Solana

Findings:

• The most popular destination for outflow of USD tokens from Alameda or FTX accounts are Gate.io, Coinbase and Kraken, respectively.
• The highest count of transfers for outflow determination occurred on November 7 and all of the CEXs has considerable share on it.
• From the Volume of transferred for Outflow of USD tokens from Alameda or FTX accounts it can be seen that the highest volume in combination of all CEXs happened on November 7 and the second rank belong to October 26 and this date can be considered as special dates.

Findings:

• On Solana ecosystem, the most popular CEX that USD tokens sent from them into the Alameda or FTX accounts is Gate.io with near 85% of transferred volume.
• The inflow analysis reveals that the highest volume of transfer occurred on October 18 with about 10 million USD from Gate.io into the Alameda or FTX accounts.
• The second rank of CEX that sent USD tokens into Alameda or FTX accounts is Coinbase.

Findings:

Keep eyes on flow of USD token from Alameda or FTX accounts on Solana ecosystem.

• The transactions related to the inflow of USD tokens into the Alameda or FTX account has more share then outflow.
• But from the volume point of view, it can be seen that the outflow volume is larger then inflow volume.
• The last week of October and first week of November were the most active days for inflow and outflow analysis.
• About 284 million USD have been sent from Alameda or FTX account on November 7 and its akward.

Conclusion:

• From the results it can be seen that, the USD tokens have been flowed from Alameda or FTX accounts into the other account like Binance since last days of October, 2022.
• The net flow investigation reveals the domination of outflow volume from Alameda or FTX accounts on both Ethereum and Solana ecosystems.

Useful links:

• Alameda Research
• FTX exchange
• Recent news

Author:

Credited by MZG

Discord handle: m.zamani#0361

Twitter handle: @GargariZamani