Elizabeth Lopatto

At a dazzling new hotspot in the center of Miami’s crypto scene, the remains of Sam Bankman-Fried’s collapsed empire are stuffed in trash bags.

Hundreds of FTX Miami T-shirts. A framed FTX-branded Heat jersey. A poster signed by chess grandmaster Magnus Carlsen in an FTX-sponsored tournament. Navy FTX bean bags, evoking where the now-bankrupt exchange’s whiz kid claims he slept.

The only way to keep pace with the inbox was to go into a state of focus so intense that at times I felt on the verge of astral projection. I heard nothing and felt nothing, not even the cues of my body. I sometimes became light-headed, and it would occur to me that I hadn’t been breathing. A senior operator watched our inbox stats at all times, and if a message went unanswered for more than a few minutes, we were in for a public shaming on Slack.

Two people with knowledge of the matter told me that Ellison, by then the sole head of Alameda, had told her side of the story to her staff amid the crisis. Ellison said that she, Bankman-Fried and his two top lieutenants—Gary Wang and Nishad Singh—had discussed the shortfall. Instead of admitting Alameda’s failure, they decided to use FTX customer funds to cover it, according to the people. If that’s true, all four executives would’ve knowingly committed fraud.

I see three dominant emotions on the capital provider side of the table right now.

Loss: Loss is one of the dominant emotions people are feeling right now – loss of paper gains, loss of expected carried interest, and a loss of optimism about the future.

Anger: Anger about having agreed to terms and prices that no longer make sense and maybe never made sense.

Regret: Regret about M&A deals that people should have taken, secondary transactions that should have been pursued, public company shares that should have been sold or distributed.

The US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York recently sent out a slew of requests, asking recipients to voluntarily hand over information on a list of FTX employees and associates, according to people familiar with the case.

Say I’m ‘Mr. Smarty Pants’ or a very interesting analyst, I think the question should be: Should I try to get this into The New York Times or should I get it into Future? We want to help advance the narrative about the future, and how technology shapes it. Because if we do that, our companies will have an easier time flourishing.