Sam Bankman-Fried says both FTX and Alameda were raking in billions in profits in 2021 before token values plunged in crypto winter

• Sam Bankman-Fried published an extensive Substack article Thursday titled, "FTX Pre-Mortem Overview."
• He said both FTX and Alameda Research were netting billions in profits in 2021, before crypto token valuations crashed in 2022. 
• He noted that "Alameda lost about 80 percent of its assets' value over the course of 2022, due to a series of market crashes."

Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced founder of FTX, published a lengthy Substack article Thursday and claimed that his crypto exchange as well as trading firm Alameda Research were highly profitable enterprises in 2021 before the crypto winter began the following year. 

"FTX International and Alameda were both legitimately and independently profitable businesses in 2021, each making billions," he wrote in the post titled "FTX Pre-Mortem Overview."

However, the broader crypto environment took a turn when Three Arrows Capital and other firms collapsed in the spring of 2022, he explained. That helped sink the asset values of nearly every major token, including bitcoin, ether, solana, and others. 

Alameda lost "about 80 percent" of its assets' value last year, Bankman-Fried said, which subsequently dragged down FTX in the same way that Three Arrows' decline contaminated the likes of Voyager and others.

However, he cautioned that he is estimating some figures due to lack off access to some records.

"Many of my personal passwords are still being held by the Chapter 11 team–to say nothing about data," he wrote. "If the Chapter 11 team wants to add their data to the conversation, I would welcome that."

Bankman-Fried stepped down as the head of his crypto empire in November, and FTX filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, which he has since said was a regrettable decision.

New CEO John Ray III has accused Bankman-Fried and his deputies of incompetence, inexperience, and haphazard bookkeeping. 

Still, in his Substack note, Bankman-Fried pointed out that there remains a potential for a very substantial recovery for customers, with FTX US still fully solvent.

Meanwhile, FTX International still has "billions of dollars of assets," he explained, and he's also dedicating nearly all of his own personal cash to customers.  

In a bankruptcy hearing on Wednesday, FTX said it has located more than $5 billion in assets as part of its work toward repaying creditors. 

The ex-FTX chief pleaded not guilty on January 3 in the Justice Department's criminal case. He is due to stand trial in October.