Why Did Deribit Exchange Transfer 10,000 ETH To FTX’s Alameda Research?

There seems to be no end to the ongoing FTX drama with newer facts popping up every other day. Recently with the revelation of Alameda Research — the trading arm of the FTX conglomerate — financing crypto media outlets like TheBlock, the firm is back in news for all the wrong reasons. This time for a suspicious transaction with the leading derivatives crypto exchange, Deribit.

Deribit Sends $12Mn To Alameda

According to the blockchain explorer Etherscan, a total of 10,000 ETH has been deposited by the Deribit crypto exchange into a wallet address that goes by the alphanumeric, 0xF02…0713. And, this address has been identified by Nansen as “Alameda Research: Wallet”.

Read More: Deribit Exchange Wallet Compromised, Loses $28 Million

These transactions took place since December 10 and amounts close to $12 Million as per today’s rate.

According to Etherscan, since December 10, Deribit 9 (0x77…63de) has accumulatively transferred 10,000 ETH to the wallet address 0xF02…0713 marked by Nansen as "Alameda Research: Wallet", which is about 12 million US dollars. https://t.co/TRw73zuPN6

— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) December 21, 2022

Till now, the reason behind these transactions are not known and none of the entities have come forward with a clear answer.

Deribit Denied Exposure

Earlier, the crypto exchange had claimed to have no “large and risky” positions with Alameda Research, the sister firm of the now-defunct FTX.

Read More: Binance’s Mysterious Trades Worth $22 Trillion Found In Latest Analysis

The exchange had further denied reports of having assets in FTX or exposure to its exchange token, FTT. Additionally, it officially stated to have no exposure to Solana’s SOL token, which was closely linked with FTX and Alameda Research.

FTX / Alameda update

Deribit does not have any special terms for Alameda or large & risky positions. Nor do we rely on their liquidity provision in any of our products.

Furthermore Deribit or group companies do not have assets with FTX or other exposure to e.g. FTT or SOL.

— Deribit (@DeribitExchange) November 9, 2022

Moreover, Deribit reaffirmed that it does not have a trading desk or group entity that clears markets or conducts deals on its behalf.

Alameda’s Private Equity Portfolio

As what came as a surprise to many, data shows FTX and Alameda had their hands in a bunch of different startups. Some of them were in non-crypto firms like Elon Musk’s SpaceX and The Boring Company while a lot many in the crypto industry, predominantly in the DeFi ecosystem.

Read More: Elon Musk’s SpaceX & Boring Company Show Up As Alameda’s Top Investments

The majority of Alameda’s unspent capital had been put into crypto and other DeFi initiatives like TrueFi, Magic Eden, Burnt Finance, Parallel Finance, Solfarm, Sundaeswap, Sahicoin and others.

The overall investment value is touted to be greater than $5.4 billion.

Also Read: Top 10 DeFi Lending Platforms In 2023