Key Takeaways
- • Former FTX chief operating officer Constance Wang, in her first exclusive interview about the exchange's fall, called the romance framing of Netflix's "The Altruists" laughable, saying "No f—ing way" to the idea of a "me and you against the world" storyline, according to the New York Post.
- • Wang said she physically threw up after about 40 seconds of the show's trailer and that she was never contacted by Netflix, which did not respond to the Post's request for comment, despite being portrayed as a character played by Madison Hu.
- • Wang described the November 2022 run on FTX, in which customers pulled about $6 billion in 72 hours, and said a spreadsheet in the war room showed a hole of roughly $8 billion.
- • FTX's bankruptcy team has clawed back about $16.5 billion to repay customers at least 118% of their balances, priced at November 2022 levels.
- • Wang said she was never charged after a roughly year-long Justice Department investigation and co-founded the crypto trading platform Pacifica in 2025.
Summary
Former FTX chief operating officer Constance Wang has publicly rejected the portrayal of Sam Bankman-Fried and Caroline Ellison in Netflix's "The Altruists," described by the streamer as "a toxic love story inspired by a real fraud." In her first exclusive interview about the collapse, given to the New York Post, Wang said the show's framing was laughable. "[Bankman-Fried's] entire goal was to change the world, make an impact, do good. Love, relationship, family seemed a bit secondary to him," she said. Wang, who appears as a character played by Madison Hu, said she could not get through the trailer when a friend showed it to her, and that she physically threw up after about 40 seconds. Netflix did not respond to a request for comment, and Wang said she had received no outreach from the streamer about the script or her portrayal.
Wang also disputed the show's depiction of the Bahamas community. According to Coindesk, around 10 people in the Bahamas were paired in romantic relationships, a claim Wang said she did not witness. She described the company as "a bunch of nerds" and said the parties she attended centered on "chess and board games." Former FTX marketing manager Quinn Li also called the trailer "very, very bad," arguing that the real team was rational rather than romantic. The Post noted that Ellison had written in a since-deleted 2020 Tumblr post about being polyamorous, and that Ellison, who pleaded guilty and testified against Bankman-Fried, was released in January after about 14 months in prison and now works at the San Francisco charity Manifund under the alias "Carol."
Wang's account of the November 2022 collapse centers on the run triggered when Binance founder Changpeng Zhao said he would dump his FTX tokens, after which customers pulled about $6 billion in 72 hours. Wang, who ran the VIP team for the largest traders, said the internal message was to stay calm, and that withdrawals were described as system problems until around 3 a.m., when Bankman-Fried acknowledged the exchange did not have enough money to meet withdrawals. In the war room, she said, a spreadsheet showed the hole at roughly $8 billion. Bankman-Fried, who is serving a 25-year sentence for fraud and money laundering, was reported by the Post to have taken $8 billion of customer money to use at Alameda Research.
The collapse affected an estimated nine million customers and investors. According to the Post, FTX's bankruptcy team has recovered around $16.5 billion to repay customers at least 118% of their balances, priced at November 2022 levels, when Bitcoin traded near $16,000. Wang said she was never charged after a Justice Department investigation of about a year and was not called to testify at Bankman-Fried's trial. She has since co-founded Pacifica, a crypto trading platform that the Post reported had processed $10 billion in trades in the past month according to DefiLlama. Wang said she does not hate Bankman-Fried or the team, adding, "I'm just sad and disappointed."
Wang also disputed the show's depiction of the Bahamas community. According to Coindesk, around 10 people in the Bahamas were paired in romantic relationships, a claim Wang said she did not witness. She described the company as "a bunch of nerds" and said the parties she attended centered on "chess and board games." Former FTX marketing manager Quinn Li also called the trailer "very, very bad," arguing that the real team was rational rather than romantic. The Post noted that Ellison had written in a since-deleted 2020 Tumblr post about being polyamorous, and that Ellison, who pleaded guilty and testified against Bankman-Fried, was released in January after about 14 months in prison and now works at the San Francisco charity Manifund under the alias "Carol."
Wang's account of the November 2022 collapse centers on the run triggered when Binance founder Changpeng Zhao said he would dump his FTX tokens, after which customers pulled about $6 billion in 72 hours. Wang, who ran the VIP team for the largest traders, said the internal message was to stay calm, and that withdrawals were described as system problems until around 3 a.m., when Bankman-Fried acknowledged the exchange did not have enough money to meet withdrawals. In the war room, she said, a spreadsheet showed the hole at roughly $8 billion. Bankman-Fried, who is serving a 25-year sentence for fraud and money laundering, was reported by the Post to have taken $8 billion of customer money to use at Alameda Research.
The collapse affected an estimated nine million customers and investors. According to the Post, FTX's bankruptcy team has recovered around $16.5 billion to repay customers at least 118% of their balances, priced at November 2022 levels, when Bitcoin traded near $16,000. Wang said she was never charged after a Justice Department investigation of about a year and was not called to testify at Bankman-Fried's trial. She has since co-founded Pacifica, a crypto trading platform that the Post reported had processed $10 billion in trades in the past month according to DefiLlama. Wang said she does not hate Bankman-Fried or the team, adding, "I'm just sad and disappointed."
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