A co-CEO of principal trading giant Alameda Research is stepping down as he “can’t justify the time investment” to the company.
Sam Trabucco joined the Hong Kong firm, which provides liquidity in cryptocurrency and digital assets markets, as a trader in 2019.
He was appointed co-CEO alongside Caroline Ellison a year ago by founder Sam Bankman-Fried, a friend from MIT who wanted to devote all of his time to crypto exchange giant FTX.
Alameda engages in trading, yield farming, startup investments and market making. It manages billions of dollars worth of assets.
Trabucco, a former competitive Scrabble player, admitted to “not really working at all” over the past few months in a Twitter thread.
Ellison replied: “It’s been an incredibly formative experience working with @AlamedaTrabucco.
“I’ve missed having him around in recent months, but I’m proud of all the other Alameda employees who have stepped up and [am] more excited than ever about our future.
“I hope he has a great time on his boat!”
It’s been an incredibly formative experience working with @AlamedaTrabucco. I’ve missed having him around in recent months, but I’m proud of all the other Alameda employees who have stepped up and more excited than ever about our future. I hope he has a great time on his boat! https://t.co/HqA2gz0FvL
— Caroline (@carolinecapital) August 24, 2022
Trabucco described his time at Alameda as “the most formative of my life” and said that in the past, he “couldn’t think of anything more worthwhile to do with [his] time than to give it to Alameda”.
That has now changed – but he will stay on as an advisor.
“Over the past few months, I have significantly reduced my role at Alameda… certainly not acting as the company’s CEO,” wrote Trabucco.
“Everyone works really hard here, and spending a ‘normal’ amount of time at work is tricky – especially when you’re trying to be a leader.
“It’s honestly been a thrill to be a part of, despite being difficult and exhausting and consuming. But I’ve reached a point in life where I have to prioritize other things.
“What other things? I’m really not sure, exactly. Lately I’ve been really happy, spending a lot of time traveling, visiting friends and family, working on “myself” and whatnot. Also I bought a boat, that’s been cool. I needed to relax, and I’m really, really happy.
I can’t 100% remove myself from crypto without going into withdrawal, so I’ll probably still be around here to some extent… I wouldn’t rule anything out in the future once I feel more ‘recovered’.
“If I’ve learned anything at Alameda, it’s how to make good decisions – and this is the right one for me.”
NFT project The 1 Club to bring together inspiring people
An NFT project bringing together inspiring people is looking to make a philanthropic and social impact.
The 1 Club, described as a new breed of private members club, is powered by the blockchain and has a limited membership of 11,111.
Invited members are able to purchase the NFT, which grants a lifetime membership and access to the club and its benefits and can be sold to others in future as its value rises. The startup says this transforms the traditional members club model from an annual expense to an asset increasing in value over time.
Founded by entrepreneurs Akshay Ruparelia, Danu Kumanan and Akash Ruparelia, the idea was conceived when they together discussed the power that a professional network can have. They now plan to harness this power to collaboratively support new business ventures, philanthropic initiatives and social causes around the world.
In addition, 20% of the royalty fees generated by membership will be dedicated to philanthropic causes and endeavours, with space for members to suggest, support and be involved in further charitable projects and initiatives.
The 1 Club has already partnered with Project Hope, a global health and humanitarian relief organisation, and World Central Kitchen, a not-for-profit non-governmental organisation devoted to providing meals in the wake of natural disasters.
The direction of The 1 Club will be decided by the members, an example of the power of decentralisation made possible by the use of blockchain.
Cryptocurrency shorts
Binance is launching a pre-paid Mastercard offering cryptocurrency rewards on purchases. To be initially rolled out in Argentina, users can top up the card with crypto, convert it into fiat and spend it with Mastercard merchants around the world.
NFT holders may not own the intellectual property rights of the assets they’ve purchased, warns Alex Thorn, Galaxy Digital’s head of research. He told CoinDesk: “The vast majority of NFT art projects… convey no actual ownership for the underlying content. When you buy one of these tokens… you’re not buying the media that the metadata points to, you’re actually buying a licence from an issuer.”
Thirdweb, a platform for Web3 app developers, has raised $24 million in a Series A round at a $160m valuation. The funding was led by Haun Ventures, the investment firm launched earlier this year by former a16z partner Katie Haun.
Scammers stole more than $100 million worth of NFTs in the last 13 months, according to cryptocurrency risk management firm Elliptic.
A federal judge has ruled that crypto lender Voyager Digital, which is undergoing bankruptcy proceedings, can pay more than 30 employees a collective $1.6 million bonus to ensure they stay with the company.
The Ethereum Merge, which will move the world’s second most valuable crypto from a proof-of-work to a more environmentally friendly proof-of-stake validation mechanism, will be set in motion on September 6th and is likely to complete between September 10th-20th.
Crypto prices
The overall market cap of the more than 20,700 coins is at $1.04 trillion at the time of writing (7am UK), a 1% increase in the last 24 hours.
Market leader Bitcoin – the original cryptocurrency created by the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto – gained 1% to $21,675. BTC is 8% down on a week ago.
Ethereum, the second most valuable crypto coin – created as a decentralised network for smart contracts on the blockchain – grew 3% to $1,690. ETH is 9% down over the course of a week.
Binance Coin is a cryptocurrency created by popular crypto exchange Binance to assist its aim in becoming the infrastructure services provider for the entire blockchain ecosystem. Its BNB token remained at $299, leaving it 3% down over seven days.
The XRP token of Ripple, a payment settlement asset exchange and remittance system, acts as a bridge for transfers between other currencies. XRP gained 2% to 35c, with its price 7% down on seven days ago.
Cardano is an open source network facilitating dApps which considers itself to be an updated version of Ethereum. Its ADA token, designed to allow owners to participate in the operation of the network, added 1% to top 46c and is 14% down in a week.
Solana is a blockchain built to make decentralised finance accessible on a larger scale – and capable of processing 50,000 transactions per second. Its SOL token added 3% to $35.88 and is 12% lower than its price a week ago.
Meme coin DOGE was created as a satire on the hype surrounding cryptocurrencies but is now a major player in the space. DOGE grew 2% to 6.9c and is 16% down over seven days.
Polkadot was founded by the Swiss-based Web3 Foundation as an open-source project to develop a decentralised web. Its DOT token, which aims to securely connect blockchains, grew 2% to $7.68 and is 9% down on its price a week ago.
Avalanche is a lightning-quick verifiable platform for institutions, enterprises and governments. Its AVAX token added 1% to $23.41 and is 10% down in a week.
Polygon aims to securely connect blockchains as a sort of decentralised internet. Its MATIC token gained 1% to 82.4c, while it is 8% down in a week.
To see how the valuations of the main coins have changed in recent times – and for round-ups of recent cryptocurrency news developments – click here.
For valuations of the top 100 coins by market cap in US dollars, plus 24-hour price change, see below.