Crypto billionaire Sam Bankman Fried is disputing reports that two of his companies — FTX and Alameda Research — are merging their venture capital investing operations.
The news, reported by Bloomberg, came a day after Alameda co-CEO Sam Trabucco stepped down from his role, leaving Caroline Ellison as the sole CEO.
The move was attributed to Ellison, the business news service adding that the consolidation “hasn’t been previously reported” and was initiated “to consolidate parts of billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried’s empire as it copes with a prolonged decline in cryptocurrency prices.”
The news of the merger was quickly disputed on Twitter by Bankman-Fried, who responded to a DB News alert by writing, “This seems like a big misrepresentation to me!”
“FTX has been doing more venture recently, and I guess maybe Alameda has been doing less,” he continued. “That’s a really different thing than what the headline implies!”
“I think maybe a line was misinterpreted,” Bankman-Fried wrote. “FTX’s venture investing is concentrated under FTX Ventures—that’s different from Alameda’s ventures, which aren’t.”
Even so, both FTX Ventures and Alameda are part of the same corporate family and led by Bankman-Fried. The news, and Bankman-Fried’s incredulous response, have already prompted memes on crypto Twitter.
The transition in question appears to have begun in January, with the launch of FTX Ventures.
Representatives of FTX and Alameda did not respond to a request for comment from Decrypt as of this writing.
This is a developing story and will be updated as information warrants.
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