Bankrupt crypto firm Celsius’s biggest creditor linked to FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried

July 14, 2022.

Sam Bankman- Fried has had an outsize role as a lender during the recent crackup. Bankman-Fried's trading firm, Alameda Research, is owed over $12 million by Celsius, which filed for Chapter 11 on Wednesday. He has ties to a mysterious entity called PharosUSD Fund, which is the largest creditor of Celsius.

The biggest shareholder in Pharos is Tara MacAulay, a co-founder of Alameda Research, who is listed in the only email linked to the company on the bankruptcy filing. An SEC filing shows that Pharos is an affiliated company of Lantern Venture.

Half of the founder's profits are donated to high-impact charitable causes, according to the company's website. Those ideals are similar to those of Bankman- Fried.

MacAulay and Bankman- Fried are both affiliated with Centre for Effective Altruism. MacAulay was an employee of Bankman-Fried's firm, but Alameda has no affiliation to Lantern.

Bankman- Fried has an overlap with MacAulay as well. Victor was a head trader at Alameda for 9 months. Centre for Effective Altruism and Giving What We Can are both associated with Bankman- Fried.

It's not clear if Lantern and Alameda Research collaborated on any of their investments into Celsius, a company that offered high interest rates to retail investors. After the collapse of the Terra stable coin, is it clear that Celsius could meet its obligations to depositors?

Retail investors are likely to lose everything they put in as a result of the bankruptcies. More details of Celsius's collapse and possibly Bankman Fried's involvement with the company and with Pharos are likely to emerge in the course of court proceedings.