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Caroline Ellison: Secret recording offers trove of explosive revelations

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The ongoing trial of former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried has uncovered a series of explosive revelations in the form of testimonies from former key FTX and Alameda Research executives. 

The latest court proceedings on Oct. 12 saw former Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison testify for the third day, following which the jury was presented with a recording of a meeting she held with Alameda staffers on Nov. 9, 2022, just days before the collapse of the FTX empire.

The meeting, held in Hong Kong and joined by nearly half of Alameda’s employees, was the key moment Ellison came clean about the ongoing scenario with the crypto exchange to her colleagues. This admission was accompanied by explosive revelations about Alameda’s financial relationship with FTX. Cointelegraph has obtained access to the secret recording, and we have curated a list of four striking elements it revealed.

Alameda’s bad investments led to the financial crisis at FTX

The first and most crucial revelation came early in the meeting when Ellison revealed that Alameda had borrowed money from FTX for a year. She admitted that Alameda had made several illiquid investments using the borrowed funds.

Due to the market downturn, Alameda’s loan positions were called in, creating a shortfall in FTX’s balance sheet. Here’s an excerpt from the discussion:

“Most of Alameda’s loans got called in in order to meet those loan recalls. We ended up borrowing a bunch of funds on FTX, which led to FTX having a shortfall in user funds. And so with the, once there started being like FUD about this and users started withdrawing funds.”

Ellison revealed that Alameda’s bad loans created market panic around FTX, causing users to withdraw their funds. FTX then paused withdrawals to contain the situation, and the exchange came crashing down within days.

FTX planned to raise more funds to compensate users

When one of the employees attending the meeting asked Ellison how FTX intended to pay back its customers, Ellison said that the crypto exchange was planning to raise further funds to fill the gap.

“Basically, FTX is trying to raise in order to do this [compensate users], but yeah, after the crash, no one wanted to invest. I don’t know, obviously, in retrospect, the plan of waiting around for several months and like for the market environment to get better and then raise.”

During the court proceedings on Thursday, Christian Drappi, a former software engineer at Alameda who was present during the meeting, told the court that Ellision’s response about paying back customers sounded concerning to him because he wasn’t aware of a scenario where investors have contributed to making customers whole due to bad financial decisions of the company.

The nervous laughter

As the secret recording was played in the court, the former Alameda employee also pointed out that Ellison had giggled during the meeting. The employee suggested this was Ellison’s “nervous laughter,” something she often did when in a tight spot.

Related: Changpeng Zhao’s tweet ‘contributed’ to collapse of FTX, claims Caroline Ellison

When Ellison was asked by a staffer at the meeting whose idea it was to plug Alameda’s loan losses with FTX customer money, she responded with, “Um, Sam, I guess,” and giggled.

Alameda almost always had access to user’s funds at FTX

Another staffer enquired about the backdoor access of Alameda to FTX and asked how long Alameda had been using FTX customers’ funds to bridge holes in its balance sheet. Ellison responded, “FTX basically always allowed Alameda to borrow user funds, as far as I know.”

Collect this article as an NFT to preserve this moment in history and show your support for independent journalism in the crypto space.

Magazine: How to protect your crypto in a volatile market — Bitcoin OGs and experts weigh in

Cryptocurrency

Why Is XRP Pumping? Whale Moves $90M as Ripple Price Nears $3

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TL;DR

  • XRP jumps 80% from April lows as whales move over $200 million in large transactions.
  • ETF volume surges 5x above normal as traders await ProShares’ XRP futures fund launch.
  • XRP nears $3 as traders speculate on $4 breakout amid revived momentum and whale activity.

XRP Hits Five-Month High After 80% Climb

XRP has surged nearly 80% from its April lows and shot up to almost $3 for the first time in several months. The token has increased by 8% in the last 24 hours and 25% weekly, making it one of the strongest assets in the market this week.

Interestingly, the rally also marks a Bitcoin (BTC) breakout to a new record of $118,800, assisting in pushing up wider crypto prices. XRP has gained renewed momentum after months of muted movement, drawing fresh interest from both retail and institutional traders.

Whale Transfers Fuel Speculation

On-chain data shows several large XRP movements over the past 24 hours. Whale Alert flagged a 33 million XRP transfer (worth about $90 million) from Upbit to an unknown wallet. Another 40 million XRP, valued at over $100 million, moved between unidentified addresses, as CryptoPotato reported.

In a separate transfer, 25.49 million XRP were sent from a private wallet to Coinbase. The cause behind such transactions is not clear, but these movements are likely to precede or follow price action. The timing has added to ongoing market speculation around the asset’s next move.

XRP ETF Volume Spikes Ahead of Key Deadlines

Trading activity has also picked up in XRP-linked exchange-traded products. Bloomberg’s Eric Balchunas noted a sharp increase in volume. 

“The XRP ETFs seeing surge in volume today, like 4-5x the norm,” he posted. 

The 2x leveraged XRP fund ($XXRP) rose 27% on the day and 55% this week, with volume hitting $120 million.

As reported, ProShares plans to launch three futures XRP ETFs on July 14. These include Ultra XRP, UltraShort XRP, and Short XRP funds. The launches depend on whether the SEC allows them to proceed without objection before deadlines later this month.

Traders continue to watch the charts closely. Edoardo Farina, a crypto educator, said,  

“It wouldn’t be surprising if market participants woke up to see XRP trading above $4.”

XRP has remained below its all-time high for over seven years, but current momentum has revived market expectations for a breakout.

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Cryptocurrency

Bitcoin Price Analysis: Is a Correction Coming or Will BTC Break $120K Next?

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Bitcoin has decisively broken above its previous all-time high of $111K, triggering a powerful bullish rally toward the key $120K psychological resistance.

However, as BTC approaches the $120K zone, profit-taking and distribution pressure may rise, increasing the likelihood of a short-term corrective pullback.

Technical Analysis

By ShayanMarkets

The Daily Chart

After a prolonged consolidation phase, Bitcoin has decisively broken above its previous all-time high of $111K. This breakout was backed by a notable surge in buying activity, triggering a short-squeeze that accelerated the bullish momentum. As a result, Bitcoin rapidly climbed toward the psychologically significant $120K resistance level.

While this move signals strong market confidence, the $120K region is a probable zone for profit-taking and distribution, which could temporarily slow down the rally. A short-term corrective phase is therefore expected, likely pulling the price back toward the $111K region to retest the breakout level. Based on the Fibonacci retracement tool, key resistance levels ahead are located at $120K and $131K.

The 4-Hour Chart

On the lower timeframe, Bitcoin printed a powerful bullish candle, decisively breaking above both the descending wedge pattern and the previous ATH at $111K. Following a minor pullback to retest the breakout zone, the price resumed its upward surge, reaching the $120K mark.

Such impulsive rallies are often followed by short-term corrections, as traders begin to realize profits. A healthy retracement would likely target the 0.5 ($113K) to 0.618 ($111K) Fibonacci levels, a key zone where the market may stabilize and build momentum for the next leg up.

On-chain Analysis

By ShayanMarkets

As Bitcoin trades at all-time highs near $120K, an intriguing insight emerges from the Short-Term Holder SOPR metric. This indicator, which measures realized profits from investors who’ve held BTC for less than 155 days, remains notably muted, especially when compared to November 2024, when Bitcoin first reached $111K.

Despite the recent surge, short-term holders aren’t cashing out aggressively, indicating that profit-taking is still relatively limited. Historically, the end of a bullish cycle is often accompanied by elevated SOPR values due to massive profit realization. But for now, the data suggests the market isn’t overheated, and the current rally could still have room to grow if new demand enters.

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Disclaimer: Information found on CryptoPotato is those of writers quoted. It does not represent the opinions of CryptoPotato on whether to buy, sell, or hold any investments. You are advised to conduct your own research before making any investment decisions. Use provided information at your own risk. See Disclaimer for more information.

Cryptocurrency charts by TradingView.

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Cryptocurrency

Binance Crushes Rivals: Grabs 37% of Global BTC Spot Volume in H1 2025

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Binance led global BTC spot volume in the first half of 2025. CryptoQuant’s latest analysis revealed that the crypto exchange commanded more than 37% market share, which is equivalent to over $3.44 trillion in traded volume.

This significant lead evidenced Binance’s position as the primary hub for Bitcoin liquidity and major flow activity, as volume spikes and large trades often appear there first.

Competitors Lag Behind

Other prominent platforms such as Bybit, Crypto.com, Coinbase, and OKX collectively accounted for around 29% of total spot volume during the same period. Together, they formed the next tier of liquidity centers despite the wide gap with Binance.

Meanwhile, crypto exchanges such as Upbit, Bitget, and HuobiPro each hovered around the 5% mark. While they did maintain relevance in the global market, but had comparatively lower influence, as noted by CryptoQuant.

On the other hand, Kraken, KuCoin, and Gate.io, among other long-tail exchanges, each contributed less than 3% of total BTC spot volume and largely served niche or regional markets.

“Bottom line: If you’re looking for deep liquidity or want to track major BTC flow activity, Binance is still the primary exchange (by far).”

Beyond its spot volume share, Binance also dominates in whale activity.

Bitcoin Whales Won’t Leave Binance

In fact, CryptoQuant found that Binance has been leading in cumulative whale transaction flows across centralized exchanges. The exchange recorded a whopping 31.36 million BTC in whale inflows and 30.82 million BTC in outflows. This reflected not the total BTC supply but the sheer velocity and frequency of whale-sized movements (≥1000 BTC/day) over its operational lifespan.

Spread across 2,869 active days of whale inflows, Binance has facilitated over 53.2 million whale transactions. It has dwarfed competitors with 10 times Kraken’s activity and five times that of HTX. This massive two-way flow indicates Binance’s role not merely as a custody hub but as a trusted venue for large-scale, active trading, market-making, and arbitrage operations, confirming its depth and infrastructure as reliable for whales.

For context, HTX Global follows with 24.1 million BTC in inflows across 6.8 million whale transactions, while Kraken recorded 23.7 million BTC in inflows with 765,000 whale transactions. Other notable platforms include Bitstamp, Bitfinex, Gemini, OKX, and Poloniex, but none match Binance’s scale.

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