Crypto conspiracy theories abound, but prop traders are just doing its job

cointelegraph.com:

Alameda Research is a cryptocurrency trading firm and liquidity provider founded by crypto billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF). Before founding his firm in 2017, SBF spent three years as a trader at the quantitative proprietary trading giant Jane Street Capital, which specializes in equity and bonds.

In 2019, SBF founded the crypto derivatives and exchange FTX, which has quickly grown to become the fifth-largest by open interest. The Bahamas-based exchange raised $400 million in January 2022 and was valued at $32 billion.

FTX’s global derivatives exchange business is separate from FTX US, another entity controlled by SBF, which raised another $400 million from investors including the Ontario Teachers Pension and SoftBank.

The self-made billionaire has big dreams, like purchasing finance giants like Goldman Sachs, and in July 2021, he previously mentioned that “M&A [mergers and acquisitions] is going to be the most likely use of the funds,” raised from investors.

On June 18, crypto brokerage Voyager Digital announced that Alameda Research had agreed to give the company a 200 million USD Coin (USDC) loan and a “revolving line of credit” of 15,000 Bitcoin (BTC) worth $319.5 million at current prices.

During an interview with NPR on June 19, SBF stated that Alameda Research and FTX “have a responsibility to seriously consider stepping in, even if it is at a loss to ourselves, to stem contagion.”

In the interview, SBF noted that his companies had done this “a number of times in the past,” including a $120 million loan to the then financially-troubled Japanese crypto exchange Liquid.

This news raises some interesting questions, but more importantly, traders should understand what a proprietary trading firm is and how market makers