Alameda Research received 500 BTC in its merchant wallet

Alameda Research is sitting on over $1B in crypto assets, even after the latest repayment to creditors. The fund’s wallets received another 500 BTC valued at over $58M. 

Alameda Research, the defunct quant and hedge firm linked to FTX, received another 500 BTC in one of its main wallets. Following the latest inflow, and with additional SOL unlocks, Alameda Research once again sits on over $1B in assets. 

The BTC inflow came from an intermediary wallet, labeled ‘WBTC merchant deposit’, from Alameda’s involvement with the WBTC ecosystem. The 500 BTC were moved through a series of intermediary wallets, showing activity in the past few weeks. 

The funds were tracked to deposits from QCP Capital, which started moving into Alameda’s wallets three weeks ago. The wallets also moved through Alameda’s WBTC Merchant addresses.

During its activity period, Alameda Research had status as an official WBTC merchant, meaning it could accept BTC and mint WBTC tokens. The WBTC was still issued by BitGo, while Alameda was not the custodian. 

The current tranche of 500 BTC returning to Alameda’s wallet may come from its own funds, unwrapped from the tokenized form. In any case, Alameda is now the full custodian of the 500 BTC. 

The small transaction recalls previous episodes when Alameda withdrew assets from FTX in the days before its bankruptcy. WBTC was one of the main inflows, as Alameda used its status as WBTC merchant to unwrap the assets and switch to BTC. Due to the rising BTC market price, the recent inflow was even larger than the withdrawals at the time of the FTX bankruptcy. 

Alameda inflows arrive just before the next FTX distribution

The transfer into Alameda’s wallets has not been moved to another address, and may not become a part of the current FTX distribution at this stage. 

As planned, at the end of September, another $1.6B would be distributed to creditors, this time for retail holders. 

Initially, Alameda’s wallets were tapped to pay down creditors, liquidating SOL, NFTs, and other assets. Over time, the quant fund refilled its wallets from former engagement with DeFi. Alameda was also among the top WBTC redeemers during its peak levels of activity, at one point redeeming up to 13,000 BTC.

Does Alameda still have access to Celsius WBTC?

The recent transaction raised more questions on the origin of the WBTC and the ability of Alameda to unwrap the tokens and claim BTC. 

Before the Celsius bankruptcy, the platform deposited 24,000 WBTC into FTX. At one point, Celsius was the owner of 98% of the WBTC used by the FTX exchange. 

Previous on-chain research shows Alameda’s wallets handled thousands of WBTC, most probably from Celsius. Instead of being redeemed, the tokens were sold for stablecoins. 

Celsius has already settled all claims with FTX, after receiving $377M following the exchange’s bankruptcy procedure. 

Previously, Alameda’s activity was one of the busiest periods for minting and redeeming WBTC. The tokens have since reached a relative equilibrium with a total supply of 127,237.

Is FTX reviving its brand? 

The latest transaction once again drew attention to the bankrupt FTX and its brand. FTT tokens keep surging in the short term, trading around $0.94. 

The other source of attention is the recently launched Pacifica perp DEX, headed by Constance Wang, former COO of FTX. 

The recent transaction raises the question of Alameda’s portfolio, which has not been transferred to the FTX bankruptcy wallets. The fund still holds over 4M SOL, and over 705 BTC in its WBTC merchant wallet. 

FTX is not making a comeback, but the latest crypto activity shows the exchange has a lasting effect on crypto culture.

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