The implosion of the crypto exchange FTX has been garnering headlines all weekend, however we’re simply starting to unravel the thriller of one of many greatest personalities on the middle of all of it.
Whereas FTX founder CEO Sam Bankman-Fried has been gobbling up the vast majority of the eye within the ongoing debacle, Caroline Ellison — the CEO of FTX sister firm Alameda Analysis, which allegedly used FTX’s customers’ funds for buying and selling and led to the entire meltdown — is now attracting vital curiosity as effectively.
In accordance to CoinDesk, Ellison was at occasions romantically concerned with Bankman-Fried whereas they and eight different folks within the corporations’ orbits lived collectively at a home within the Bahamas. These eight others had been additionally all “paired up,” the report notes, although it is unclear what construction these relationships took and whether or not they had been monogamous or not — resulting in widespread speculation that the group might have been concerned in some type of polyamorous relationship on the identical time that they had been constructing the now-obliterated crypto empire.
Whereas we will not substantiate whether or not any of that’s true, we will with some extent of certainty, assert that we have discovered Ellison’s Tumblr weblog — and, intriguingly, it does appear to include clues concerning the polycule idea.
Underneath the deal with “worldoptimization,” the since-deleted weblog — nonetheless accessible through the Wayback Machine — linked to Ellison’s actual Twitter account again in March 2021. The timestamps on the Tumblr submit and the month her Twitter was created appear to line up, that means that if this can be a faux, it is an especially devoted one, began by an impostor earlier than this present scandal and even earlier than Ellison turned CEO.
If the Tumblr is legit, which appears overwhelmingly doubtless, it accommodates plenty of posts that stick out as weird, objectionable, or downright cringe. Maybe the goofiest of those is her list of attractive traits in a man, which incorporates, amongst different issues, “controlling most main world governments” and “ample power to bodily overpower you.”
The account additionally repeatedly referenced polyamory. In one post it described a “harem”-like scenario that lends credence to the “FTX polycule” claims.
“After I first began my foray into poly, I considered it as a radical break from my trad previous, however tbh I’ve come to resolve the one acceptable fashion of poly is finest characterised as one thing like ‘imperial Chinese language harem,'” it reads. “None of this non-hierarchical bullshit; everybody ought to have a rating of their companions, folks ought to know the place they fall on the rating, and there must be vicious energy struggles for the upper ranks.”
Let’s be clear: there’s nothing mistaken with polyamory, which many individuals follow in a satisfying and moral method.
However relationship your coworkers, and notably your subordinates or folks over whom you could have monetary sway, is sort of by no means a good suggestion as a result of it might simply result in energy imbalances, conflicts of curiosity, and different disagreeable office dynamics.
And the way in which Ellison’s obvious account describes the dynamic, even when it is a misfired try at a joke, sounds severely poisonous. Vicious energy struggles in a relationship? No thanks!
Judging by the spectacular implosion of FTX — a fracas that is shaken the foundations of the complete crypto market, impacting primarily everybody invested within the house — it appears clear that no matter fashion of relationships did dominate this specific office, they did not finish effectively.
One factor’s for certain: this saga retains stunning us. Let’s simply hope it does not find yourself giving the broader polyamory neighborhood a nasty identify.
Extra on the FTX fiasco: The FTX Collapse is So Egregious That Even the Bahamas Are Investigating
