Bankman-Fried’s Crypto Trading Firm Names Co-CEOs, Scales Up

(Bloomberg) -- Crypto billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried’s quant trading firm Alameda Research is building out its ranks as volume climbs.

Alameda named veteran employees Caroline Ellison and Sam Trabucco as co-chief executive officers, according to a release Tuesday. The firm’s team has swelled to roughly 30, with about eight new hires joining across the trading, development and operations team over the past few months, according to Ellison. Even with the additional headcount, keeping up with Bitcoin’s massive rebound and accompanying surge in trading activity has been a full-time endeavor. 

“In the past six to 10 months, volumes across the board have 5-x’ed, 10-x’ed,” Trabucco said in a phone interview. “The increasing volume has made it such that even with our team scaled up, we could be focusing 100 percent of our time on just making model improvements all the time, thinking constantly on what our position should be.”

The world’s largest cryptocurrency soared above $57,000 for the first time since May on Monday, buoyed by optimism that all-time highs could be in reach. Bitcoin has rocketed over 90% higher after breaking below $30,000 in late July. 

Ellison joined Alameda as a trader in March 2018 from quant trading firm Jane Street, where she worked with Alameda and crypto exchange FTX founder Bankman-Fried. Trabucco also joined as a trader in 2019, after working at Susquehanna International Group. 

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