FTX is coming to Netflix, but not everyone likes the storyline. Constance Wang, former director of operations of the crypto exchange and then co-CEO in its final months, strongly criticizes the trailer for The Altruists. She believes that the series transforms a bankruptcy that destroyed billions of dollars into a love story between Sam Bankman-Fried and Caroline Ellison. Netflix will release all eight episodes on November 19.
In brief
- Netflix will release all eight episodes of The Altruists on November 19.
- Constance Wang challenges representation of FTX and its former executives.
- Sam Bankman-Fried is still serving a 25-year prison sentence.
The serial FTX crypto scandal
Netflix does not hide the chosen angle. The Altruists follows Sam Bankman-Fried and Caroline Ellison, two central figures in the collapse of the crypto platform FTX. The platform presents their story as that of two young idealists who became billionaires before the destruction of their empire.
The legal reality is much less romantic. Sam Bankman-Fried’s sentence to 25 years in prison was definitively confirmed on appeal this summer. Anthony Boyle plays SBF. Julia Garner plays Caroline Ellison, former executive of Alameda Research and former partner of Bankman-Fried.
Netflix specifically puts their relationship at the center of the trailer. The company calls it a “toxic love story” inspired by a real-life fraud. Creator Graham Moore explains that he wanted to show two characters who were initially convinced that they could improve the world.
However, FTX collapsed in November 2022 after a liquidity crisis revealed its financial ties to Alameda Research and the misuse of client funds. The series picks up this fall. But his way of telling it doesn’t convince everyone.
A former manager does not recognize the FTX she knew
Constance Wang reacted publicly after the trailer was released. She claims the company shown on screen bears little resemblance to the FTX crypto platform where she worked. Wang served as COO since 2019 before becoming co-CEO during the exchange’s final months.
She tells a team of fewer than 200 people, with employees sometimes working 16 to 18 hours a day. Not exactly the image of a group spending their time partying in the Bahamas. Wang, however, does not seek to defend Bankman-Fried. She recalls losing a lot of money herself in the collapse and says she was the last person to leave the Bahamas after SBF’s extradition.
She especially criticizes the place given to the couple. According to her, the relationship between Bankman-Fried and Ellison was so discreet that several employees did not learn of its existence until after the bankruptcy. Caroline Ellison later played a major role in the trial. She had testified against Bankman-Fried before serving time related to the FTX crypto scandal.
Wang also takes issue with the personality attributed to Ellison in the trailer. She describes it as calm and reserved, far from some of the more aggressive scenes shown by Netflix. For her, the problem is simple: a gigantic crypto fraud gradually becomes a sentimental drama.
FTX continues to haunt the crypto industry four years later
Netflix arrives at a time when the FTX file is still not completely finished. Sam Bankman-Fried remains in prison. Caroline Ellison left federal custody for a form of community detention after cooperating with prosecutors. The financial procedures continue.
Former customers are gradually getting their money back. This summer, FTX was already approaching $11 billion repaid to its creditors. The series therefore brings to the forefront an event which remains very concrete for thousands of former users.
Netflix, however, assumes a dramatic adaptation, not a documentary. The screenwriters say they used available information to build their characters while imagining moments that were never filmed.
This is precisely where the versions diverge. For Netflix, the relationship between SBF and Ellison helps tell the story of the rise and fall of a multi-billion empire. For Constance Wang, this choice distorts the environment in which the FTX exchange actually operated and reduces a financial disaster to a romance. The public will decide from November 19. Eight episodes later, FTX’s crypto story is still likely to get people talking.
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