Insiders: Alameda had already incurred huge losses before FTX launched in 2018

ChainCatcher news, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal citing informed sources, Alameda's trading algorithms were designed for a large volume of automated, rapid trading, but incorrect guesses about price trends led to losses as early as 2018. By the spring of 2018, Alameda's assets had decreased by more than two-thirds, down to about $30 million, partly due to massive losses in the token XRP of the Ripple payment network. SBF needed increasing amounts of capital to sustain operations. According to informed sources, by the end of 2018, he promised potential lenders annual returns of up to 20% in cash or cryptocurrency. (source link)