Caroline Ellison Is Going by "Carol" Now, and She's Working at a Charity
The former Alameda Research CEO quietly spent two months at Manifund under the alias "Carol" before cofounder Austin Chen went public with the hire. It's a redemption story for some, a transparency problem for others, and a telling look at what crypto's memory actually costs.
I did a double take on Friday. Caroline Ellison, the woman who ran Alameda Research while it quietly bled billions out of FTX customer accounts, has a new job.
She's also got a new name. She goes by "Carol."
And just like that, crypto's most famous cooperator is a full-time employee at Manifund, a nonprofit grant platform that funds effective altruism and AI safety work.
What Actually Happened
Manifund cofounder Austin Chen broke the news himself. Ellison had been working there for two months under the name "Carol" before he said anything publicly. She's full-time now, not a contractor, not a volunteer.
Chen's reasoning boils down to one line. He believes in redemption.
Here's the part most outlets skipped. Ellison didn't wander into this gig off a job board. She was a card-carrying member of the effective altruism crowd long before FTX blew up. That's the scene she came up in. That's how she ended up at Jane Street and then at Alameda. Manifund funds EA projects. So she's not just back to work. She's back inside the exact social circle that produced the disaster.
The numbers still sting. Roughly $8 billion in customer funds went missing. Sam Bankman-Fried got 25 years. Ellison got 2, and she earned every break by testifying against him. She was also ordered to forfeit about $11 billion. That order isn't going anywhere, no matter what her paycheck says.
Traders are watching closely. Not because this moves a single token. Because it tells them something about who gets to come back.
The Real Story Is the Alias
Redemption is a fine idea. Most people support it in the abstract. But there's a difference between hiring someone and hiding someone.
Two months of "Carol" isn't an open-door policy. It's a soft launch. If the hire was defensible on day one, why wasn't it announced on day one? That's not a gotcha, it's the actual question, and Chen hasn't really answered it.
The crypto industry has a short memory and a long list of comebacks. People who lost money in 2022 are still living with the fallout. Meanwhile the people who ran the show are getting paychecks, bylines, and podcast invites. That gap is going to get wider, not narrower.
There's a practical wrinkle too. Nonprofits live and die on donor trust. Manifund's backers are now funding a payroll that includes one of the most recognizable names in financial fraud. Some of them won't care. Some will care a lot. We'll find out which is which soon enough.
My Honest Take
Look, I'm not going to pretend a charity job is some kind of crime. If the whole point of a sentence is that you finish it and rejoin society, then what's the objection here? She served her time. She cooperated when it counted. That counts for something.
But the secrecy is what bugs me. Not the job. The alias.
If you believe in redemption, own it out loud. Say the name. Take the heat. Chen did that eventually, and I'll give him credit for it. He could've stayed quiet forever, and he didn't.
So what do you do with this? Two things. First, if you give to Manifund or any EA-adjacent outfit, ask direct questions about who's on payroll. Second, watch what happens next. If Ellison's hire sticks and donations keep flowing, that's a signal. It means the market has decided the FTX era is officially closed.
That's the verdict that matters. Not hers. Ours.
