Andrew Thurman

While there’s an emerging consensus that the Alameda catastrophe — aside from the fraud and use of FTX customer funds — was essentially the fault of incompetent “kids,” court documents and on-chain analysis show the trading firm at times had the ability to print money almost as quickly as they lost it.



Two things can be true at once: There were deeply talented individuals working at Alameda that made it a genuine trading, investing and market making powerhouse, and simultaneously, failures by leadership to institute common sense security practices (or, you know, not commit crime) that ultimately led to its demise. 



Public perception is fickle, but on-chain records don’t lie. Prior to November 2022, Alameda was something of a boogeyman among the perpetually online degenerate crowd — capable of rendering a yield farm inarable with the casual deployment of a few hundred million, or single-handedly deciding the fate of an altcoin. There were few who would question Alameda’s expertise or profitability.&nbsp;



Then, the fall. Over the course of a few weeks, it was revealed that much of <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/alameda-research" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Alameda’s</a> perceived might was attributable to a particularly odious form of leverage – using FTX customer <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/caroline-ellison-testifies-sbf-trial" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">funds to size bets and cover catastrophic losses</a>.&nbsp;



Since then, not only has Alameda lost its onetime aura, but it’s even become fashionable to poke fun at investors who were taken in by Sam and co. After all, what kind of rube could have fallen for their spiel?&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">This is your typical crypto VC due diligence. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Sequoia?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Sequoia</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/FTX?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#FTX</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/SBFTrial?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#SBFTrial</a> <a href="https://t.co/bKIRAhwgOH">pic.twitter.com/bKIRAhwgOH</a>&mdash; Duo Nine ⚡ YCC (@DU09BTC) <a href="https://twitter.com/DU09BTC/status/1712573605375094989?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 12, 2023</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



Collective amnesia makes sense given the circumstances, but I’d venture that the story of Alameda is most accurately told by acknowledging that there was a period where the firm truly excelled in their arena.&nbsp;



Consider Government Exhibit <a href="https://twitter.com/tomkysar/status/1712319463297626254/photo/1">64</a> — a Google Doc of Caroline Ellison’s notes doing some napkin math on the state of Alameda’s operation.&nbsp;



According to her, Alameda printed $3.5 million per day between farming, trading and loan interest. The firm accounted for 2% of daily crypto trading volume; brought in $350 million from OTC and market making deals; earned $500 million (on paper) from venture investments; made $61 million on its most profitable trading day. 



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/caroline-ellison-alameda-tell-all">Ellison’s tell-all meeting with Alameda employees ‘was kind of fun’</a>



Skeptics don’t have to wholly trust these back envelope estimations, either. According to analytics firm Nansen, Alameda is responsible for the single most profitable wallet in the Ethereum blockchain’s history, with $550 million PnL from decentralized exchange trades across 135,000 transactions — a figure all the more impressive, given that Caroline wrote that Alameda traded on “very little [DEXs] besides Serum.” 



We don’t know who exactly, but there were talented people at Alameda.&nbsp;



Before being accused of revisionism or carrying water for self-professed criminals, I’d add that acknowledging these successes does not take away from the sheer scale of their blunders.&nbsp;



In a series of X threads, former Alameda engineer Aditya Baradwaj has been shedding light on the company’s operations, including some eye-popping and genuinely incompetent fumbles: $100 million lost because a trader clicked a phishing link; $40 million sent into the void on a fat-fingered transaction; $50 million lost to leaking keys.&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">PART 3: THE HACKS or How poor security practices at Alameda Research caused the company to lose hundreds of millions of dollars (1/n) 🧵<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/SBF?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#SBF</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/FTX?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#FTX</a> <a href="https://t.co/RFocE7w3Gx">pic.twitter.com/RFocE7w3Gx</a>&mdash; Adi (e/acc) (@aditya_baradwaj) <a href="https://twitter.com/aditya_baradwaj/status/1712181985844600913?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 11, 2023</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



Financial histories are an educational, if at times formulaic, subgenre. The ways people and institutions make money are always fascinating (though they can rarely be replicated), but the ways they lose it are consistently the same: sloppiness and leverage. Like all great financial stories, Alameda made their money in unique and talented ways — conversely, they lost their money exactly how you would expect.&nbsp;



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/sam-bankman-fried-trial-day-8" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">BlockFi ‘forced’ into bankruptcy following FTX, Alameda collapses: SBF trial live updates</a>



What could have been, had Sam simply chosen not to leverage customer funds? If he had instituted a board, like some investors wanted? If he had invested in scaling and leadership, instead of promoting a former flame who admitted multiple times on the stand that she felt unqualified to run his fund?&nbsp;



In her testimony last week, Caroline Ellison revealed that Sam once told her he <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/sam-bankman-fried-day-5" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">believed he had a 5% chance of one day becoming President</a>. While the comment is now roundly mocked, when reflecting on Alameda and FTX’s history I believe a fair view shows that there may well have been a time when his assessment wasn’t far off.



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>


<div class="wp-block-post-author-biography">Andrew Thurman is a Data Editor based in Washington, DC. He previously wrote for CoinDesk and Cointelegraph, and worked in various roles for Chainlink and Nansen. His analysis has been quoted in The Financial Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Forbes, Fortune, Reuters, The BBC, CNBC, and elsewhere. Contact Andrew at andrew@blockworks.co.</div>


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alameda

Hot take: Someone at Alameda was actually good at their job

Shalini Nagarajan

<div id="highlights-block_6329b41af47b8" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>After successful repayment, Voyager will return Alameda&#8217;s collateral worth some $160 million</li>
 <li>The bankrupt lender is set to announce sale of its assets to the highest bidder on Sept. 29</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Quant trading firm Alameda Research is set to repay Voyager Digital loans worth almost $200 million, as the crypto lender makes its way through bankruptcy proceedings.



A <a href="https://cases.stretto.com/public/x193/11753/PLEADINGS/1175309202280000000002.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">court filing</a> from Monday shows Alameda, founded by FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, will pay back 6,553.42 BTC ($125.4 million) and 51,204.38 ETH ($69.1 million) in principal and loan fees, on top of smaller sums in other tokens including dogecoin, USDC, luna classic, and Voyager&#8217;s native asset VGX.



The payments are due on Sept. 30 at 5 pm ET. Voyager will return the collateral for loans that Alameda had pledged in the amount of 4,650,000 FTX tokens ($110.1 million) and 63,750,000 serum tokens ($49.1 million) if the payments are on time.



If Alameda is unable to meet its deadline, the bitcoin instalments will increase by 1.07 BTC ($20,500) per day, while the ether segments will increase by 9.59 ETH ($13,000) per day, the filing said.



Shortly before Alameda’s filing on Monday, Voyager Digital <a href="https://cases.stretto.com/public/x193/11753/PLEADINGS/1175309202280000000001.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">asked</a> a federal bankruptcy court for an order to unwind the trading firm’s outstanding loans and return the collateral. 



When Voyager <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/voyager-files-for-bankruptcy-days-after-freezing-withdrawals/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">filed</a> for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in early July, Alameda owed the lender <a href="https://cases.stretto.com/public/x193/11753/PLEADINGS/1175307062280000000036.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$377 million</a> in loans, which were denominated in raw tokens rather than US dollars. The value of Alameda&#8217;s loans have almost halved since then.



Two days later, Alameda <a href="https://twitter.com/AlamedaResearch/status/1545244404910239744">tweeted</a> that it was “happy to return the Voyager loan and get our collateral back whenever works for Voyager.” It had also <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/voyager-to-borrow-500m-from-alameda-amid-insolvency-rumors/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">lent Voyager $500 million</a> to mitigate the tough market environment. 



The designated wallet addresses for the payoff amounts and the return of collateral were redacted in Alameda’s filing. Making Voyager’s wallet addresses public would affect its restructuring efforts by allowing open access to commercially sensitive financial information, the lender said.



Voyager is now in the process of <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/voyager-to-liquidate-assets-at-auction/">liquidating</a> its remaining assets. After receiving multiple bids, the final results will be announced in court on Sept. 29 at 2 pm ET. According to <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/business/2022/09/15/ftx-is-in-the-lead-to-buy-crypto-lender-voyager-digitals-assets-out-of-bankruptcy-source/">CoinDesk</a>, FTX is in the lead to snap up its distressed assets.



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Alameda to Repay $200M Loan to Voyager as Asset Auction Nears

Ben Strack

<div id="highlights-block_63068766cef32" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Sam Trabucco and Caroline Ellison were named co-CEOs of Alameda last October</li>
 <li>The now-former Alameda executive to remain an adviser to the firm, though did not reveal other future professional plans</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Alameda Research co-CEO Sam Trabucco is stepping down from his role at the crypto quantitative trading firm and liquidity provider.



In <a href="https://twitter.com/AlamedaTrabucco/status/1562519129495846913" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">a series of tweets</a> Wednesday, Trabucco said he’ll stay on with the firm as an adviser, but will no longer have a strong day-to-day presence at Alameda. Caroline Ellison will continue as sole CEO, an Alameda spokesperson told Blockworks.



“For years, I couldn&#8217;t think of anything more worthwhile to do with my time than to give it to Alameda,” he tweeted. “It&#8217;s honestly been a thrill to be a part of, despite being difficult and exhausting and consuming. But I&#8217;ve reached a point in life where I have to prioritize other things.”



Founded by FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried in 2017, Alameda trades billions of dollars per day across every liquid cryptocurrency market. Trabucco and Ellison <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/alameda-research-appoints-caroline-ellison-and-sam-trabucco-as-co-chief-executive-officers-301397894.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">were appointed co-CEOs</a> of the company last October after joining Alameda as traders in 2019 and 2018, respectively.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Trabucco had reduced his role at Alameda over the last few months. He does not currently have any projects lined up.



“I can&#8217;t 100% remove myself from crypto without going into withdrawal, so I&#8217;ll probably still be around here to some extent,” he said.&nbsp;



Before joining Alameda Research, Ellison worked on the equities desk at Jane Street, where she met Bankman-Fried. The two worked closely together building out Alameda&#8217;s trading floor and back-office operations into a 25-person team.&nbsp;



“It&#8217;s been an incredibly formative experience working with<a href="https://twitter.com/AlamedaTrabucco"> </a>[Trabucco],” Ellison tweeted. “I&#8217;ve missed having him around in recent months, but I&#8217;m proud of all the other Alameda employees who have stepped up and [am] more excited than ever about our future.”



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Alameda Research Co-CEO Steps Down

<div id="highlights-block_62ece1b8c6145" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Voyager could finalize a third-party buyout by September 7</li>
 <li>The crypto lender previously dismissed Alameda and FTX&#8217;s proposal as a “low-ball bid”</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Voyager Digital seems bent on letting FTX know it doesn’t need its help.



The bankrupt cryptocurrency lender said it has received superior bids compared to the one offered by billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried’s companies.&nbsp;



Voyager’s lawyers told Judge Michael Wiles in court on Thursday that 88 interested parties have contacted the firm and it expects to receive more bids up to its August 26 deadline, according to a <a href="https://cases.stretto.com/public/x193/11753/CORRESPONDENCE/1175308042250000000003.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">second-day hearing presentation</a>.



The company claims it’s in active discussions with 22 parties, and any sale agreement is likely to be heard in court on September 7. Voyager was <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/ftx-offers-to-bail-out-voyager/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">thrown a lifeline</a> via a joint offer from Alameda Ventures and FTX (Alameda/FTX) in late July.&nbsp;



Alameda/FTX proposed to buy Voyager’s remaining digital assets and loans, except for defaulted loans made to defunct hedge fund firm Three Arrows Capital.&nbsp;



Also under the proposal, Voyager customers would be able to withdraw some of their owed cash immediately or use their funds to buy digital assets on FTX’s platform — provided they signed up for an FTX account.



But Voyager <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/voyager-lawyers-clash-with-bankman-fried-over-low-ball-buyout-offer/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">dismissed</a> that offer as a “low-ball bid dressed up as a white knight rescue,” saying it would entertain only “serious” proposals. Bankman-Fried then suggested Voyager customer funds could be frozen for a long time since bankruptcy proceedings are ordinarily lengthy, to the benefit of Voyager’s counsel.



The lender hit back by sending a cease and desist letter to Alameda/FTX regarding “inaccurate” public statements.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Voyager stock and native token attempt recoveries</h3>



Voyager <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/voyager-files-for-bankruptcy-days-after-freezing-withdrawals/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">filed for bankruptcy </a>on July 5, shortly after freezing withdrawals on its network. Alameda Research was listed as its biggest creditor, with unsecured loans worth $75 million.&nbsp;



Judge Wiles, who is overseeing its bankruptcy, this week <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/voyager-gets-approval-to-return-270m-to-customers-share-price-climbs/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">granted approval</a> for the firm to return $270 million to its customers, according to the Wall Street Journal. The company is estimated to owe up to $10 billion to 100,000 parties.



The Toronto Stock exchange <a href="https://www.tsx.com/news/reviews-and-suspensions?id=658" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">suspended</a> Voyager trade since its bankruptcy filing and is down 98% so far this year, data from <a href="https://www.tradingview.com/chart/?symbol=TSX%3AVOYG" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">TradingView</a> shows.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/A-_WOK2uZq3NRytmnAIokheVWwvyTcjHQjPSjtc6ZeMMKE2wTA65sGaVJSvTfJHkeligUsSVAaFpfwn4u1FHwQ23F1l4ePuPhdfVDAfAwCPp_IKXCN3XDj3EnLY_tibzIOV6Jt3lzrI2N4vmaQt2Ftg" alt=""/><figcaption>Image Source: Voyager Digital</figcaption></figure>



The firm’s native VGX token has similarly plunged 88% this year, but it&#8217;s up 55% in the last month, according to <a href="https://www.blockworksresearch.com/assets/vgx/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Blockworks Research</a>.



Voyager shares, which now trade on US OTC markets, <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/voyager-gets-approval-to-return-270m-to-customers-share-price-climbs/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">jumped</a> 40% after news of its approval to return the funds to its users.



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Bankrupt Voyager: ‘Higher and Better’ Bids Than FTX ‘Low-Ball’ on Table

Macauley Peterson

<div id="highlights-block_624b4749c21c1" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>USDN has been trading below $1 since Friday, April 1</li>
 <li>The TVL of the Waves DeFi ecosystem has dropped by $1.3 billion, more than 27%</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



An emerging stablecoin with a recent market cap approaching $1 billion has diverged dangerously from its US dollar peg — calling its very existence into question.&nbsp;



USDN, the stablecoin of the Waves blockchain ecosystem, is supposed to be worth $1, but as of Monday at 5:15 pm ET, it traded for <a href="https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/neutrino-usd" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">just 81 cents</a>.



USDN, or Neutrino USD, is considered an algorithmic stablecoin because its supply can expand and contract by burning or minting WAVES, the native token of the proof-of-stake Waves protocol.



WAVES was on an absolute tear as recently as Thursday, when it was trading up 600% in a little over a month. But now, smashed by USDN’s woes, WAVES is crashing down.


[stock_market_widget type=&#8221;accordion&#8221; template=&#8221;chart&#8221; color=&#8221;#681FB2&#8243; assets=&#8221;WAVES-USD&#8221; start_expanded=&#8221;true&#8221; display_currency_symbol=&#8221;true&#8221; api=&#8221;yf&#8221; chart_range=&#8221;1mo&#8221; chart_interval=&#8221;1d&#8221;]



Most of the economic activity and total value locked (TVL) in the Waves ecosystem is linked to the use of USDN.



The ability of <a href="https://docs.neutrino.at/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">the Neutrino protocol</a> to issue USDN is related to the price of WAVES, because USDN is backed in kind by staked WAVES tokens. The price also impacts the yield users earn on USDN in the <a href="https://vires.finance/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Vires Finance</a> dApp, Waves’ money market protocol — similar to Compound or Aave on Ethereum. As WAVES increases in value, so does interest earned by depositors.



But last week, a pseudonymous DeFi analyst, going by the username 0xHamz, alleged that Waves was using the USDN minting process, combined with Vires, to artificially inflate both the price of WAVES and the supply of USDN.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">I will walk you through how the WAVES team is folding leverage to engineering a massive supply squeeze Here is the flow -Deposit USDN on Vires -Borrow USDC on Vires -Transfer USDC to Binance -Buy WAVES with USDC -Convert WAVES to USDN -Start over This is trackable onchain&mdash; 0xHamZ (@0xHamz) <a href="https://twitter.com/0xHamz/status/1509581316689383425?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 31, 2022</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div><figcaption>Crypto pseudonyms commonly begin with 0x — the first two characters of all Ethereum addresses</figcaption></figure>



Citing <a href="https://twitter.com/0xHamz/status/1509596635923427332" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">on-chain data</a>, 0xHamz outlined a pattern of depositing USDN as collateral to borrow other stablecoins, which were transferred to Ethereum and then to the Binance exchange, followed by commensurate withdrawals of WAVES, which go toward minting additional USDN.



A blockchain’s value tends to grow with increased usage, but as 0xHamz pointed out, transactions on Waves have been stagnant or declining since its 2019 peak.



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/Z8j2PZ2KQGu26PbpqwUYExjiO26EK3RvwPNELtsCX-wuhiTbTWFm-gIm-nCciUPYmllntbfrILqcCmyhUpQacnhxjaUzxyV0GzclO82ah_j1l6PXycpDCL5yPEdURFZfLGtD_uWD" alt=""/><figcaption>Total weekly transactions on the Waves platform, with 2019 peak selected | Source: <a href="https://vis.pywaves.org/transactions/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">vis.pywaves.org</a></figcaption></figure></div>



Wave’s TVL is almost entirely attributable to Neutrino — a reflection of staked WAVES — and Vires Finance, according to <a href="https://defillama.com/chain/Waves">DeFi Llama data</a>.



A recent “<a href="https://wavestech.notion.site/wavestech/Waves-is-Transforming-1-2-c57b90770e314a5cb3ee6d1d1e6710af">transformation plan</a>” notes that 80% of WAVES are deployed in staking. The roadmap calls for upgrading the blockchain consensus mechanism and adding compatibility with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM).



Waves Founder and Lead Developer Sasha Ivanov is moving to an advisory role with development responsibility shifting to a new US company, Waves Labs, the company said.



Ivanov blamed Alameda Research, alleging price manipulation to profit from a short position in a <a href="https://twitter.com/sasha35625/status/1510589946926673920">Twitter thread on Sunday</a>, a claim Alameda founder Sam Bankman-Fried <a href="https://twitter.com/SBF_FTX/status/1510685533705547783">dismissed</a> as a “conspiracy theory.”



A spokesperson for Waves Labs did not respond to a request for comment.



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Algorithmic Stablecoin Neutrino USD is on the Brink of Failure

Sam Reynolds

<div id="highlights-block_6195746f3417a" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Maple Finance is launching a syndicated loan product with Alameda Research, to provide Alameda with trading capital and institutional investors exposure to their DeFi yields</li>
 <li>The loan is currently at $25 million, with plans to expand it to $1 billion over the course of a year</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



For institutions, DeFi can produce some eye-watering yields in the double or even triple digits. However, <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/vesper-joins-forces-with-blockforce-to-create-defi-fund/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">to get access to these yields</a>, institutions need to hold tokens, which is an obstacle due to infrastructure, education and even compliance reasons. 



In an effort to solve this problem, Maple Finance is providing an alternative: a syndicated loan product for Alameda Research — a trading firm, market maker, and investor —&nbsp;designed specifically for large-cap institutions to access debt capital markets.



This would allow institutional investors to get access to yields from Alameda’s trading, or the tokens it invests in: the eponymous “<a href="https://dchained.com/blog/the-rise-of-sam-coins/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Sam Coins</a>” named after Alameda’s Co-CEO Sam Trabucco, and founder Sam Bankman-Fried.&nbsp;



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">“This is a first where a crypto company is syndicating a loan through an on-chain vehicle to other institutional investors in the space,” explained Maple Finance CEO Sid Powell in an interview with Blockworks. “This allows Alameda to tap capital from institutional investors. They can use this for their trading, investments or other business purposes.”</blockquote>



Institutions don’t need to have a specific opinion on a DeFi token, Powell explained, as they will get yield from Alameda’s activities, broadly.



Powell equates this to setting up a figurative crypto SPAC, bypassing the usual investment banks — that might see Alameda as toxic anyways — and directly connecting borrowers with lenders.&nbsp;



“Companies previously went through investment banks to tap capital markets, then they started going directly and taking charge of their own presence there,” Powell said.&nbsp;&nbsp;



This process is long and bureaucratic, according to Powell, who gave an anecdote about the process of a syndicated loan from a traditional financial institution like JPMorgan. “That’ll take 12 weeks,” he said.&nbsp;



But because of the blockchain-based nature of Maple Finance’s syndicated loan, it can be expanded on-demand or Alameda can create a separate series of loans when required.&nbsp;



“It’s the <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/webinars/the-defi-mullet-the-future-of-defi-and-fintech/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">DeFi mullet</a>,” Powell said, referring to the process that pairs institutional compatible FinTech at the front and DeFi at the back. 



At launch, the loan is currently $25 million with plans to expand it to $1 billion over the next year.



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



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Maple Finance Gives Large-cap Institutions Access to Alameda’s DeFi Trading Yields

Jacquelyn Melinek

<div id="highlights-block_617ae0e7c4164" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Alchemy powers companies like PwC and Adobe all the way to businesses developing in Web3 like Dapper Labs, Aave, OpenSea, and Axie Infinity</li>
 <li>Alameda Research’s strategic investment will be used to create a partnership and focus on crypto and asset management initiatives </li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Andressen Horowitz, or a16z, led a $250 million raise for blockchain and Web3 platform developer Alchemy in its latest Series C round, bringing its valuation to $3.5 billion, the company said in a statement Thursday.&nbsp;



Lightspeed and Redpoint are joining as investors, with participation from previous investors Coatue, Addition, DFJ and Pantera Capital. The funding will be used to help the platform build out additional benefits from blockchain, decentralization and Web3 for its developers.&nbsp;



“Alchemy is doing for blockchain and Web3 what AWS did for the internet,” the company said in reference to Amazon Web Services, which provides on-demand cloud computing platforms and APIs. It launched publicly about a year ago and has increased its revenue 15 times over the last six months, in addition to powering more than $45 billion in transactions for users internationally, it said.



Alchemy powers companies like PwC and Adobe all the way to businesses developing in Web3 like Dapper Labs, Aave, OpenSea, and Axie Infinity.



“We’re excited to continue investing in making blockchain accessible to developers globally,” Nikil Viswanathan, co-founder and CEO of Alchemy said in a statement. “Empowering developers is the key to bringing the magic of blockchain to the world,” Viswanathan added.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Alameda Research invests $75M in Voyager Digital&nbsp;</h3>



The publicly traded cryptocurrency platform Voyager Digital announced a $75 million investment from Alameda Research on Thursday.&nbsp;



The strategic investment will create a partnership between the two companies to focus on executive, asset management and broader crypto initiatives, the companies said in a statement.&nbsp;



Alameda Research trades over $5 billion daily across thousands of products including major cryptocurrencies and altcoins as well as derivatives, it said. Voyager Digital provides a platform for more than 2 million users to trade over 60 crypto assets as well as the ability to earn rewards up to 12% annually on about 30 cryptocurrencies.&nbsp;



“While the immediate opportunity is on the order flow and asset management front, we are tremendously excited about potential future synergistic opportunities in the continuously evolving crypto industry,” Steve Ehrlich, CEO and co-founder of Voyager said. “These opportunities include NFTs and crypto derivatives through Alameda, as well as the creation of thought leadership as we work with lawmakers on shaping regulation,” Ehrlich added.&nbsp;



Also this week, Voyager partnered with Dallas Mavericks in a five-year agreement to make cryptocurrency more accessible through educational and community programs and fan engagement promotions, Blockworks previously <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/voyager-digital-partners-with-dallas-mavericks/">reported</a>.&nbsp;



In the beginning of October, Voyager’s preliminary revenue fell about 40% from the previous quarter, according to a <a href="https://www.investvoyager.com/pressreleases/voyager-digital-business-update-for-the-quarter-ended-september-30-2021">report</a>. The crypto company declined to comment further when <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/voyager-digital-preliminary-revenue-drops-40-from-previous-quarter/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">requested by Blockworks</a>, but referenced the statement in the press release that “Voyager’s transactional volume is contingent on market volume and the overall market volume decreased substantially in July and August.”

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