Ex-Alameda CEO’s Tumblr Blog Investigated Race Science, ‘Imperial Chinese Harem’ Polyamory

As observers try to make sense of the ongoing, mind-boggling collapse of crypto exchange FTX, details about the once-dominant company’s leadership’s unconventional internal practices and beliefs have begun to emerge.

Former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison, Bankman-on-again, Fried’s off-again ex-girlfriend, and a bizarre Tumblr blog that she appears to have maintained for years, stand out.

FTX’s founder and CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried, lived in a $30 million penthouse in The Bahamas with nine other colleagues until this week. According to Coindesk, the majority of high-level decisions pertaining to the operation of $32 billion exchange FTX and its sister trading firm Alameda Research were made by these ten roommates, who were reportedly romantically or sexually involved with one another at one time.

The group was described as a “polycule,” which is a romantic network of multiple people linked by overlapping sexual relationships.

Alameda, an ostensibly separate trading entity from FTX, allegedly siphoned billions of dollars from FTX customer accounts without the users’ knowledge. A report published on Monday revealed that the firm may have engaged in the illegal practice of frontrunning by making investment decisions based on insider knowledge of upcoming token launches on FTX’s trading platform.

Now, details from an Ellison-linked blog are shedding light on the former Alameda CEO’s personal beliefs and world philosophy—one shaped by hardline views on polyamory and sexual competition, a fascination with race science, and a belief in the natural synergy between crypto and fraud.

The Tumblr account, which was active from 2014 until it was deleted on Sunday, was called “Fake Charity Nerd Girl” and had the handle “worldoptimization.” The author’s personal details revealed over the account’s eight years of activity, including educational history, professional history, and living history, correspond perfectly with Ellison’s biography. Furthermore, when the account’s creator announced the creation of a Twitter account in March 2021, they linked to Ellison’s Twitter page, which was also created that month.

Not a crypto trading genius, but a ‘polyamory’ expert

The Ellison-linked Tumblr account sheds some light on the possible sexual dynamics at work in FTX’s live-in headquarters.

“When I first started my first foray into poly, I thought of it as a radical break from my trad past,” Ellison’s account wrote in February 2020, two years into his tenure at Alameda Research. “But, to be honest, I’ve come to believe that the only acceptable style of poly is something akin to ‘imperial Chinese harem.”

The story went on to explain how a polyamorous relationship should ideally function as a cutthroat market of sexual competition and subjugation.

“None of this non-hierarchical nonsense,” the account continued. “Everyone should rank their partners, everyone should know where they rank, and there should be vicious power struggles for the ranks.”

Caroline also confirmed that FTX was a poly relationship. Yes, the orgies were real. pic.twitter.com/pewxtREf7j

— honky ? (@0xHonky) November 13, 2022

The author’s fascination with sex and power dynamics was evident throughout the account. The author stated in another post that two key characteristics of a “cute boy” are “controlling most major world governments” and “sufficient strength to physically overpower you.”

The account linked to Ellison also showed a strong interest in “hbd,” or “human biodiversity,” an online euphemism for the discredited fields of race science and eugenics popularized by the alt-right.

Ellison has been vocal about her Harry Potter obsession for years. Her affiliated Tumblr account linked her love of online character quizzes to her preference for categorizing Indians by caste, which she assumed indicated genetic distinction.

“I feel like a part of me that is interested in HBD is the same part of me that is interested in personality types and ‘which character are you’ quizzes,” the account wrote. “There’s a stereotype among racists that any East Asian person speaks Chinese or something.” I appreciate that HBD people are the polar opposite of that, and will mock you for referring to ‘Indians’ without mentioning province or caste because, come on, the genetic differences are massive.”

this is caroline ellison's tumblr – the alameda ceo. we love to see a jewish kween stan indian race science. pic.twitter.com/axPNgDJ4Fs

— nikhilesh guruprasad (@excedrinenjoyer) November 13, 2022

The post did include a “offensive, sorry” content warning, as well as the hashtag “#racism.”

Over the history of white supremacy, Indian caste—a socially engineered and arbitrary sorting of India’s population accelerated during Britain’s brutal colonization of India—has long been falsely equated with race and genetics. Caste was strongly linked to skin color in India, particularly under the British. The Nazis believed that Aryans were once the lightest-skinned Indians. Hitler dispatched a Nazi expedition to investigate the Himalayan site of ancient Indus Valley civilizations as the origin of the Aryan race in 1939.

Ellison’s associated Tumblr account appeared to be equally fascinated with the role of Indus Valley civilizations in the history of alleged genetic differences among Indians. The author published numerous book reviews on the subject.

Not the biggest crypto fan

However, posts by the account shedding light on its author’s impressions of the crypto space may have been of the most direct relevance to last week’s events.

“I didn’t get into this as a true believer in crypto,” the Ellison-linked account wrote in March. “When you get down to it, it’s mostly scams and memes.”

Related

• FTX’s stunning collapse: what really happened 
• FTX used customer funds to fund risky bets, which led to its demise
• Binance will no longer buying FTX