The Epic Collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried's FTX Exchange: A Crypto Markets Timeline
Tracing the CoinDesk Market Index (CMI) through key news developments in the swift unraveling of billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried's crypto empire shows just how quickly the speculation kept shifting.
![Annotated chart of the 162-asset CoinDesk Market Index (CMI) over the course of the FTX and Alameda saga. (CoinDesk Indices and Research/Sage D. Young)](https://www.coindesk.com/resizer/lXKigNqJqyzOYPmbtWDkJUXAV-s=/567x425/filters:quality(80):format(jpg)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/coindesk/Q6CSAOMSBRGUXIEQPJ5GZMOSQU.jpg)
After this week's shocking (and still-unfolding) developments in the crypto industry, including the rapid unraveling of Sam Bankman-Fried's FTX exchange and Alameda Research trading firm, analysts with CoinDesk Indices worked with CoinDesk journalists to put together an annotated chart of the movements in the 162-asset CoinDesk Market Index (CMI).
The chart (featured above) shows how digital-asset traders scrambled to keep up.
Here's a timeline of the events:
Nov. 2: CoinDesk publishes exclusive revealing key balance-sheet details of Sam Bankman-Fried's Alameda Research trading firm, showing it's heavily invested in the FTX exchange's FTT token.
Nov. 6: Binance CEO Changpeng "CZ" Zhao says he's selling his remaining holdings of FTT tokens. (Minutes later, Caroline Ellison, CEO of Alameda Research, tweets that Alameda will buy Zhao's FTT tokens for $22 each.
Nov. 8: The FTT token price falls below $22.
Nov. 8: Binance announces non-binding letter of intent to buy FTX, subject to due diligence, easing the industry panic.
Nov. 9: CoinDesk is first to report Binance is strongly leaning against buying FTX after just a few hours of checking its books and loans.
Nov. 9: Binance officially walks away from the FTX deal.
Nov. 9: Without details, Justin Sun drops hints at saving FTX.
Nov. 10: Bankman-Fried says Alameda Research, the trading firm at the center of the drama, is being wound down.