What’s Next For FTX Culprit Caroline Ellison After Her Prison Release

Caroline Ellison was released from prison on Wednesday after serving roughly 60% of her two-year sentence. The former co-CEO of Alameda Research played a key role in the events that led to the collapse of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange.

In anticipation of Ellison’s release, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) banned her from holding any executive positions for 10 years. 

An Early Release

According to the US Federal Bureau of Prisons, the 31-year-old is now housed at a halfway facility in New York. She will remain there as part of her transition back into civilian life. Such centers help former inmates reenter society by providing support with employment and daily reintegration.

Ellison was transferred to the facility in October 2025. She was previously held at a federal prison in Connecticut, where she began serving her two-year sentence in November 2024.

Her release came around ten months earlier than originally expected. It followed sentence reductions tied to Ellison’s cooperation with prosecutors and compliance with prison requirements.

In a litigation release issued last month, the SEC barred Ellison for ten years from serving as an officer or director of any publicly traded company.

The regulator cited earlier complaints alleging that Ellison played a central role in misleading investors. These actions helped FTX raise more than $1.8 billion by presenting the exchange as a safe platform for trading crypto assets.

The SEC also pursued comparable bans against other former FTX executives who cooperated with investigators, including former CTO Gary Wang and former head of engineering Nishad Singh. Both individuals avoided prison sentences despite their involvement.

Reactions to Ellison’s early release across Crypto Twitter varied.

Divided Reactions To Ellison Sentence

Some observers questioned what they viewed as a relatively lenient outcome given the scale of Ellison’s wrongdoing and the broader damage to the crypto industry’s credibility.

By contrast, Ellison’s sentence was significantly lighter. FTX founder and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried remains behind bars and is serving a 25-year prison term.

Though both were central figures in the FTX collapse, Ellison and Bankman-Fried followed different legal paths.

Bankman-Fried pleaded not guilty and went to trial. A jury later convicted him on multiple felony charges, including wire fraud and fraud-related conspiracies connected to the misuse of customer funds.

Ellison, by contrast, pleaded guilty to several fraud and conspiracy charges and cooperated with prosecutors. This decision contributed to a significantly reduced sentence.

As part of her testimony, Ellison testified that Alameda Research and FTX improperly commingled customer assets, concealed escalating losses, and relied on an open-ended credit arrangement that allowed Alameda direct access to FTX customer deposits.

Ellison’s release effectively closed the legal chapter involving senior executives at FTX and Alameda Research, whose actions helped set the stage for the 2022 crypto winter.

For Bankman-Fried, prospects for early release appear remote. 

In a recent interview, US President Donald Trump stated that he did not intend to grant Bankman-Fried a pardon. Although Bankman-Fried is appealing his sentence, the likelihood of a retrial remains low.