Caroline Ellison, the former CEO of Alameda Research whose testimony helped convict Sam Bankman-Fried, has quietly joined the nonprofit Manifund following her release from prison — and the organization’s co-founder says he deliberately kept her hiring under wraps.
By Ana Gonzalez | September 12, 2026
The Block reported on Friday that Ellison has taken a role at Manifund, a nonprofit linked to the team behind the prediction-market platform Manifold. Austin Chen, the charity’s co-founder, disclosed the hire. Business Insider went further, reporting that the charity’s founder said he secretly gave the FTX fraud figure a job. BeInCrypto reported that Ellison — who once ran one of crypto’s most powerful trading firms — is now going by “Carol” and working out of the public eye.
The Hook: From Courtroom Star Witness to Charity Worker
Ellison’s fall was one of the most dramatic in crypto history. As CEO of Alameda Research, the trading firm at the center of the FTX empire, she admitted in December 2022 to participating in a multi-billion-dollar fraud that ultimately collapsed the exchange and vaporized customer funds. She pleaded guilty to fraud charges as part of a cooperation deal with U.S. prosecutors and became the government’s star witness at Bankman-Fried’s trial in late 2023, where her testimony — describing how customer money was funneled from FTX to cover Alameda’s losses — proved devastating to the defense.
Her cooperation earned her a far lighter sentence than her former boss. In late 2024, a federal judge sentenced Ellison to two years in prison, explicitly crediting her guilty plea and extensive cooperation, while Bankman-Fried remained serving a sentence more than an order of magnitude longer. Ellison reported to prison in mid-2025 and, according to the reports surrounding her new job, has since been released — the latest chapter in a story that has now moved from courtroom to workplace.
Why a Charity Would Take That Risk
Manifund is not a household name, but it sits at the intersection of two worlds Ellison knows well: effective altruism-adjacent philanthropy and prediction markets. The nonprofit is associated with the founders of Manifold, the platform where users bet play-money and real-money style contracts on everything from elections to research outcomes — essentially a crowd-sourced forecasting tool. Chen’s decision to hire her, and to do so quietly, suggests the organization valued her skills enough to absorb the reputational cost.
That reputational cost is real. FTX’s collapse in November 2022 cost customers, investors and lenders billions of dollars, and the FTX estate has spent years working to repay creditors through bankruptcy recoveries. For many in the crypto community, the names at the top of that empire — Bankman-Fried, Ellison, Gary Wang, Nishad Singh — remain shorthand for the industry’s worst era. Any organization that hires one of them invites scrutiny, and Business Insider’s framing of a “secret” job suggests Manifund knew exactly what it was doing by not announcing her arrival.
The Core Conflict: Redemption or Accountability?
The reaction to Ellison’s new job captures a genuine tension in how the crypto industry treats its fallen figures. On one side is the argument that she did everything the justice system asks of a cooperating witness: pleaded guilty, testified at length, served her sentence. By that logic, a quiet return to productive work is not a scandal — it is the system working.
On the other side are FTX’s victims, thousands of customers who spent months or years locked out of their funds, for whom a charity job under a shortened first name may read as an uncomfortably soft landing. The BeInCrypto report on her new “Carol” identity drew exactly that kind of criticism — the suggestion that someone at the center of an 8-billion-dollar fraud is now rebuilding a life partly outside public view.
It is also a reminder that the legal aftermath of FTX is still unfolding. Bankman-Fried has petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn his conviction and an 11-billion-dollar forfeiture order, according to recent reports, while the bankruptcy estate continues returning value to creditors. Ellison, by contrast, has now formally exited the criminal-justice phase of the saga. Whether the public accepts that exit is a different question — and one the crypto community was already arguing about within hours of the news breaking.
Market Implications: Why This Matters Beyond Gossip
For regular investors, the Ellison story matters for two reasons. First, it is a marker of how far the FTX era has receded: the executives who once dominated headlines are now being released, rebranded and quietly re-employed, even as the industry’s regulatory framework is being rewritten in Washington. Second, her landing spot inside the prediction-market world is notable, because prediction markets themselves are booming — platforms like Polymarket and Kalshi have expanded aggressively into sports, politics and macro events, drawing regulatory attention on both sides of the Atlantic.
The broader market backdrop is calm by comparison. Bitcoin traded around 77,100 USD on Saturday, roughly flat on the day, with Ethereum near 2,523 USD and Solana around 102 USD, according to CoinGecko data. The Fear and Greed Index stood at 63, signaling greed. In other words, the market that FTX once shook has moved on — even if its former executives’ names still command attention.
The Verdict
Caroline Ellison committed a serious fraud, cooperated completely, served a short sentence, and has now been quietly given a second chance by a charity that bet her talents outweigh her history. That sequence will strike some readers as justice and others as insult. What is not in dispute is the milestone: the last central figure of the FTX inner circle still standing has re-entered civilian life. The crypto industry’s memory, however, is long — and “Carol” may find that the hardest part of her rehabilitation is not the job, but the name on it.
The cryptocurrency market remains highly volatile. This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice.
she’s going by carol now lol. from running alameda to a nonprofit gig the founder deliberately kept quiet. wild arc
austin chen disclosing it only after reporters caught up kinda undercuts the whole kept-it-quiet-for-privacy framing
reporters asking first is the tell. kept it quiet for her privacy and we got caught are the same sentence here
the privacy framing would hold up better if chen had volunteered it at the time instead of after reporters started calling. still, she did cooperate and served the sentence, the anger feels mostly performative at this point
yep. kept it quiet for her privacy and business insider found out anyway are doing a lot of work in the same statement
this. chen got ahead of it the exact moment BI started calling, so the privacy story only became the story once hiding was off the table
disclosing after reporters call and disclosing because reporters call are the same event with different press. chen played the only hand he had
She cooperated, served her time, and took a quiet role. People will still be angry, but the alternative is nobody ever getting a second chance.
second chances are one thing but keeping the hire quiet until people noticed is a choice. manifund knew exactly how this would look
come on, there was no version of this announcement that goes well. quiet rollout was the only move
She cooperated, served her time, and the co-founder is being upfront about why he stayed quiet. The reaction would have been worse if it leaked on its own.
going by carol and processing grant paperwork at a nonprofit is a fittingly quiet epilogue for the whole FTX saga. hope it lasts
Going by Carol and processing grants somewhere quiet is about as low profile as an FTX name can get. Hope the work is boring and good.
hope the work is boring and good is right. the alternative to a quiet second chance is someone with her skill set unemployable forever, and that helps nobody. the disclosure timing is the only fair criticism here
boring and good is honestly the best outcome available to her. woman testified, did the time, let her process spreadsheets in peace
agree tbh. she couldve taken the podcast redemption arc like everyone else, instead its carol doing grant paperwork quietly. weirdest and most normal ending the FTX saga could get
the podcast redemption arc would have paid better but grant paperwork is the one thing nobody can call revisionist. chen staying quiet until BI started calling was the risky part, not the hire itself
chen kept it quiet for her privacy, business insider found out anyway. whoever leaked it inside manifund wanted this story out, thats the subtext nobody is covering
or the leaker did her a favor. a controlled reveal now beats someone screenshotting her at a grantee meetup in march
a controlled reveal would have been a blog post in june. this was a forced one after business insider started calling, agree on the outcome tho
Manifund raises money on trust in effective giving and then hires the FTX trial witness without a word to donors. bold bet that nobody would notice
donors did notice eventually, thats the flaw in the bet. one curious grantee with a linkedin search was always the failure mode
donors finding out from reporters is the actual governance fail here. one email in march and this whole story is a footnote
the bet mostly worked though, she was there for months before anyone noticed. one linkedin search ending it says more about donor due diligence than manifund
manifund doing effective giving work is exactly where spreadsheet skills matter. she will process more grants this quarter than alameda did honest trades