A significant controversy rocked the bitcoin community. Sam Bankman-Fried, the former CEO of FTX Exchange, was detained early this year on suspicion of fraud and recently released after posting a $250 million bond. Until the trial, he is now under house arrest. It has now come to light that Caroline Ellison, a 28-year-old former CEO of Alameda Research and his ex-girlfriend, has admitted guilt in order to lessen her punishment in exchange for complete cooperation with the SBF’s prosecutors.

According to estimates, FTX owes creditors up to $8 billion and has lent Alameda Research as much as $10 billion as a result of their actions. SBF and Ellison were both well-known in their industry prior to the controversy. SBF developed several businesses before leading FTX Exchange and had an economics degree from MIT, while Ellison was a math major at Stanford University with a distinguished academic record and a Potterhead.

Reports that both SBF and Ellison had alluded to amphetamine use within their respective organizations prior to the fallout from their alleged fraudulent actions heighten the fascination around this topic. Now that Bankman-Fried might spend up to 115 years in jail if found guilty of all eight crimes leveled against him, it appears that Ellison’s plea could further isolate him.

This story should serve as a warning to anyone wishing to invest in the cryptocurrency industry or launch their own business there: always be careful who you do business with! With the significant stakes involved, it seems probable that this case will continue to be significant for some time as we wait for the outcome of the investigation into what actually transpired between these two formerly coworkers who are now rivals.