The Altruists, covering the rise and fall of FTX, will start streaming on November 19.
On November 19, Netflix will start streaming The Altruists, an eight-episode mini-series based on the rise and fall of cryptocurrency exchange FTX. The streaming service has released a trailer for the show, featuring its stars Anthony Boyle as Sam Bankman-Fried and Julia Garner as Caroline Ellison. In the trailer, you’ll see how the two of them had met and of the times Ellison’s “all in” mentality had supposedly influenced how they ran their business.
Bankman-Fried founded FTX, which offered crypto exchange and crypto hedge fund services, with Gary Wang. FTX originally formed inside Alameda Research, a trading firm co-founded by Bankman-Fried and Ellison, who eventually entered a romantic relationship with each other. They reportedly bonded over “effective altruism” and believed that high-income jobs are worth taking if the end goal is to give income away to charities.
FTX was once one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency changes with a daily trading volume of $10 billion until its rapid collapse in 2022. The price of its native token took a nosedive and a lot of users withdrew their money, fearing a liquidity crisis. That led to the revelation that $8 billion of its customers‘ money had gone missing. In court, Ellison testified that Bankman-Fried directed her to use FTX customer funds to buy property, make political donations and fund Alameda Research. Bankman-Fried was found guilty of seven counts of fraud and conspiracy in late 2023 and was sentenced to 25 years in prison. He recently tried to appeal his fraud conviction, but an appeals court had denied it.
