On January 21, 2026, Caroline Ellison — former CEO of Alameda Research, Sam Bankman-Fried’s girlfriend, and a key figure in the collapse of FTX — is set to be released from prison.

 Headlines from November 2022: The Alameda hedge fund, which dumped billions of dollars of FTX clients’ funds into the market, was run by 28-year-old Harry Potter fan Caroline Ellison (details) — with just 1.5 years of total market experience, working as a junior trader.

In industry terms, this is a role that typically has little to no access to real trading decisions and is closer to support tasks than risk management — yet it ended up controlling one of the largest pools of capital in crypto history.

A reminder of how leverage, blind trust, and weak governance can turn “genius founders” and “quant funds” into one of the biggest financial disasters of the decade.

#FTT #crypto #successstory