Caroline Ellison Released: 14 Months Served as FTX Saga Winds Down
Former Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison exits federal custody after serving nearly 14 months, while Sam Bankman-Fried lobbies President Trump for clemency.
Caroline Ellison is out.
The former Alameda Research CEO was released from federal custody today, January 21, 2026, marking the end of the custodial phase for the government’s star witness in the FTX fraud case. According to Bureau of Prisons records, Ellison served approximately 14 months of her two-year sentence, a reduction attributed to standard good conduct credits and participation in pre-release programs.
The Cooperation Premium
Ellison’s early exit highlights the stark divergence in outcomes between the FTX co-conspirators. While she reintegrates into society, subject to a 10-year ban on serving as an officer of any public company, Sam Bankman-Fried remains in federal prison, facing a 25-year term that currently projects his release in 2044.
Ellison’s testimony was the lynchpin of the prosecution. She dismantled the complex financial plumbing between Alameda and FTX for the jury, detailing how customer funds were siphoned to cover trading losses. That cooperation secured her a fraction of the statutory maximum.
FTT: A Dead Cat That Won’t Bounce
Markets ignored the news. The FTX Token (FTT) traded flat at $0.49 (-0.6%), with volume effectively non-existent. The token remains a zombie asset, untethered from any functional utility, yet still speculated on by a fringe of retail traders hoping for bankruptcy estate payouts.
The Clemency Gamble
The narrative now shifts entirely to Bankman-Fried’s political Hail Mary. Following President Donald Trump’s October 2025 pardon of Binance founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ), Bankman-Fried’s legal team has intensified efforts to secure similar clemency.
“The war on crypto is over,” the White House stated following CZ’s pardon.
Bankman-Fried’s parents are reportedly leveraging this administration’s pro-crypto stance to argue his sentence is a remnant of a previous regulatory regime. However, the distinction remains sharp: CZ’s charges were regulatory (AML failures); Bankman-Fried’s conviction was for theft.
For now, Ellison is free. Bankman-Fried is not. And the ledger on the largest fraud in crypto history is nearly closed.
