Caroline Ellison Joins Manifund Full-Time After FTX Guilty Plea

Caroline Ellison, the former CEO of Alameda Research who became the star witness against FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, has taken a full-time role at Manifund, a nonprofit grant platform, according to a report from The Block. The announcement confirms that Ellison is moving into the philanthropic sector after her pivotal cooperation with federal prosecutors in the FTX fraud case. The specific title and responsibilities she will hold at Manifund have not been publicly detailed, and the platform has not disclosed an official start date for her new position.

Manifund operates as a nonprofit grant-making platform that connects donors with vetted charitable projects, functioning as an intermediary for philanthropic giving. The organization is led by Austin Chen, who co-founded the platform with the goal of making charitable funding more transparent and efficient. Ellison's arrival at Manifund places her within a small, mission-driven team focused on directing capital toward social causes rather than the high-stakes trading operations she previously managed at Alameda.

Ellison pleaded guilty in December 2022 to charges including wire fraud, commodities fraud, and money laundering, and she testified against Bankman-Fried at his trial in October 2023, providing jurors with detailed accounts of how Alameda misappropriated FTX customer deposits. Her cooperation agreement with the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York has been widely credited as a decisive factor in securing Bankman-Fried's conviction on all seven counts. As of the latest available information, Ellison has not yet been sentenced, and her sentencing hearings have been repeatedly postponed while prosecutors continue to assess the value of her cooperation.

The Manifund role represents Ellison's first significant public step toward professional reintegration since the FTX collapse in November 2022. The choice of a nonprofit grant platform over a return to finance or technology suggests a deliberate pivot away from the profit-driven world of crypto trading.