Key Takeaways
- Alameda Analysis, the quantitative buying and selling agency co-founded by Sam Bankman-Fried, reportedly had $14.6 billion in belongings and $7.4 billion in liabilities final June.
- An in depth take a look at the numbers, nonetheless, suggests many of the agency’s belongings have been made up of illiquid Solana-based tokens.
- Alameda’s monetary state of affairs could have been one of many causes Bankman-Fried stepped as much as cease contagion throughout the crypto market throughout the summer time.
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In keeping with new reporting, Alameda Analysis’s stability sheet was largely composed of illiquid FTT and SOL tokens final summer time. This growth casts doubt on the agency’s means to repay its excellent money owed if required.
Operating the Numbers on Alameda’s Steadiness Sheet
Even Alameda Analysis has been hit by the crypto bear market, in keeping with new reporting digging into the agency’s funds.
A Wednesday CoinDesk report quoting an unnamed supply has claimed that the quantitative buying and selling agency held greater than $14.6 billion in belongings on June 30, towards $7.4 billion in liabilities. Alameda was co-founded by crypto billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried in 2017, two years earlier than he launched his wildly profitable cryptocurrency trade, FTX.
Alameda is called one in all crypto’s greatest whales, however an in depth take a look at the numbers quoted within the CoinDesk article suggests that the agency could also be in a way more precarious state of affairs than onlookers would have anticipated.
In keeping with the report, the $14.6 billion the agency held on June 30 included $3.66 billion in unlocked FTT, $2.16 billion in FTT collateral, $2 billion in equities, $3.37 billion of “crypto held,” and $134 million in money. That equates to $11.32 billion, with $3.28 billion unaccounted for.
In the meantime, Alameda’s loans come to $7.4 billion, which embrace $292 million in locked FTT and $863 million in locked SOL. Apparently, CoinDesk claims that Alameda valued these two liabilities at 50% decrease than the honest market worth as a result of the tokens are locked. Treating them at honest market worth would add greater than $1.1 billion to Alameda’s liabilities.
Because of this Alameda at present has over $6.11 billion in FTT on its books, $5.82 billion of which it counts as belongings. FTT is a coin launched by FTX that merchants can stake to unlock reductions (from 3% to 60%) on buying and selling charges. FTT is among the largest cash within the crypto ecosystem, however in keeping with FTX’s official website, there are at present 197,091,309 FTT in circulation, placing the coin’s market capitalization at $4.87 billion. Meaning the present FTT market is totally illiquid so far as Alameda is worried. It’s holding $5.82 billion value of a token that it might’t promote with out cratering its worth.
There are additionally different factors of concern surrounding the corporate’s stability sheet. In keeping with the report, Alameda counted Solana-based tokens like SOL, SRM, FIDA, MAPS, and OXY amongst its $3.37 billion in crypto belongings. Since these have been the tokens talked about by title on the stability sheet, it will be honest to imagine they constituted Alameda’s greatest holdings. Whereas the precise quantity of every token the agency is holding is unknown, most of them have posted woeful performances all through the bear market. SRM, FIDA, MAPS, and OXY are all down over 93% from their peaks with markets which can be sure to grow to be extremely illiquid. If these tokens are consultant of Alameda’s mixed crypto holdings, the agency would battle to money in on its $3.37 billion in crypto belongings if it ever wished to.
Crypto Briefing’s Take
There are just a few caveats to this evaluation. First, Crypto Briefing didn’t acquire entry to Alameda’s stability sheet—these figures are based mostly on CoinDesk reporting. Second, even when these numbers have been appropriate on the finish of June, Alameda has had 4 months to make adjustments to its holdings. Lastly, Alameda’s monetary statements could include unknown info that places the agency’s place in a a lot better mild.
Nonetheless, taking these numbers at face worth, plainly Alameda is in a troublesome state of affairs. The agency has $7.4 billion in liabilities, however it appears obvious from the numbers that it doesn’t have sufficient belongings to pay them off.
In fact, the state of affairs is more likely to be extra complicated. Whereas Bankman-Fried stepped down as Alameda’s CEO some time in the past, the agency has a decent relationship with FTX. Given FTX’s historical past of providing bailouts this 12 months, it’s not onerous to think about the trade stepping in to assist Alameda if wanted.
However the agency’s obvious monetary difficulties shed new mild on Bankman-Fried’s cavalier angle throughout the summer time. All through Could and June, brutal market circumstances worn out crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital, which occurred to owe billions of {dollars} to a number of main crypto lenders, together with Voyager and BlockFi. Bankman-Fried shortly provided to bail out struggling firms, citing the necessity to reaffirm traders’ belief within the markets. By his actions, Bankman-Fried earned a fame as crypto’s lender of final resort; he even proclaimed in July that he had over $2 billion able to deploy to stop additional contagion.
This reported stability sheet, nonetheless, could also be telling a distinct story. If Alameda was caught in illiquid tokens because the market was tanking, there’s a risk that Bankman-Fried determined to step up not for the sake of the crypto market itself, however merely to avoid wasting Alameda. On this state of affairs, stabilizing the market, decreasing panic, and exhibiting power may have been a technique to reassure Alameda collectors—and forestall them from asking the agency to pay again its loans.
Disclaimer: On the time of writing, the writer of this piece owned BTC, ETH, and several other different crypto belongings.