Caroline Ellison has a new job. The former Alameda Research CEO and one of the most important witnesses in the criminal case against FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried has joined Manifund, a nonprofit grantmaking platform.
But the September 11 announcement did not mark her first day at the organization.
Ellison had already been working there for nearly two months under the name “Carol.” She started a work trial in July, became a full-time employee in August, and contributed publicly to Manifund before her identity was disclosed.
Quick answer: Caroline Ellison is now working full time at Manifund. She began a work trial on July 13, 2026, moved into a full-time position on August 10, and was publicly identified by the organization on September 11. Manifund says her work includes technical infrastructure, operations, customer support and research related to philanthropic funding.
The unusual hiring has reopened questions about Ellison’s life after FTX, the role she now holds, and why an organization involved in distributing philanthropic money would hire someone who pleaded guilty to seven federal charges connected to one of the largest financial fraud cases in U.S. history.
What is Caroline Ellison’s new job?
Caroline Ellison is now working full time at Manifund, a U.S. nonprofit that operates an online platform for funding charitable projects.
Manifund co-founder Austin Chen announced Ellison’s hiring on September 11, 2026, saying she had accepted a role developing the organization’s funding platform and researching how to direct philanthropic dollars effectively.
Ellison described her responsibilities more broadly. In the same announcement, she said she planned to continue improving Manifund’s technical infrastructure while working on operations, customer support and updates for the organization’s newsletter.
Manifund’s current team page lists “Carol N” as Senior Researcher & Ops.
This distinction matters: Ellison has not returned to a cryptocurrency exchange, hedge fund or crypto trading company. Her new employer is a nonprofit grantmaking organization.
She had already been working there as “Carol”
The public announcement came weeks after Ellison actually started working with Manifund.
- July 13, 2026: Ellison began a work trial at Manifund.
- August 10, 2026: The trial converted into a full-time role.
- September 11, 2026: Manifund publicly disclosed that the person working as “Carol” was Caroline Ellison.
During the period between July and September, Ellison published work and supported Manifund users under the pseudonym “Carol,” according to the organization’s announcement.
The revelation attracted particular attention because Manifund describes transparency as a central part of its approach to philanthropy.
Why did Caroline Ellison use the name “Carol”?
Ellison explained that when she began the work trial, she did not know whether Manifund would eventually offer her a permanent position.
She said she did not want to make a major public announcement about returning to work only to potentially leave the organization a month later.
Once she accepted a full-time offer, she said she wanted to be open about her identity.
Chen also defended the temporary use of a pseudonym, arguing that pseudonymous work can make sense when a person’s real identity is extremely well known.
At the same time, he acknowledged the tension with Manifund’s stated commitment to transparency. In the announcement, Chen apologized for what he called the organization’s “minor deception” and acknowledged that Manifund had compromised on transparency by allowing Ellison to work under another name.
How did Caroline Ellison end up at Manifund?
According to Chen, the connection began through Manifest 2026.
Chen said he had read some of Ellison’s previous writing and invited her to the event because he wanted to meet her. During the festival, Ellison later approached his booth and asked about joining the Manifund team.
The organization then offered her a work trial.
Chen said Ellison’s background in finance and systems management became useful quickly.
One example he highlighted was a reconciliation tool she built for Manifund. According to Chen, the tool identified several transactions that had been incorrectly registered in the organization’s database, involving amounts in the five- to six-figure range.
That claim comes directly from Manifund and is particularly notable given Ellison’s history as CEO of Alameda Research.
What exactly is Manifund?
Manifund is a 501(c)(3) public charity formally named Manifold for Charity Inc.
The organization operates an online platform through which donors can discover and fund charitable projects. Its activities include public fundraising, regranting programs and experimental funding mechanisms known as impact markets.
Manifund describes its approach as transparent, fast, experimental and collaborative. Its website publishes grant proposals, evaluations and financial information, and the organization also makes its source code publicly accessible.
Manifund should not be confused with Manifold, the prediction-market company. Manifund says the two are now separate organizations with no shared employees, although Manifund’s origins are closely connected to Manifold.
There is also an FTX connection
The story becomes more unusual when Manifund’s history is considered.
Years before hiring Ellison, the project that eventually developed into Manifund received funding connected to the FTX Future Fund.
In a September 2026 account of Manifund’s history, Chen wrote that the nonprofit entity “Manifold for Charity Inc.” originally emerged from an effort to let prediction-market users direct winnings toward charity.
According to Chen’s account of Manifund’s history, the FTX Future Fund approved an approximately $500,000 grant around April 2022 for the original charity-prediction-market project.
At that point, the project was still a side project of Manifold. Manifund later developed into a broader platform focused on public grantmaking, regranting and experimental funding mechanisms.
Chen has openly acknowledged the connection. In the announcement of Ellison’s hiring, he wrote that he felt a strong debt to the FTX Future Fund and said parts of Manifund’s current work were directly inspired by its approach.
He also acknowledged the other side of that history: FTX’s collapse harmed customers and damaged the effective altruism community with which the Future Fund had been closely associated.
This means Ellison is now working for an organization whose history intersects with the philanthropic network that FTX helped finance before the exchange collapsed.
Why did Manifund hire her despite FTX?
Chen framed the decision primarily around rehabilitation and Ellison’s usefulness to the organization.
He argued that Ellison had admitted wrongdoing, cooperated with authorities and served time in federal custody, and that she should have an opportunity to contribute professionally again.
He also said Manifund needed people with the technical, financial and systems-management skills Ellison could provide.
The decision is nevertheless controversial for an obvious reason: Manifund operates systems through which philanthropic funds are distributed, while Ellison pleaded guilty to crimes connected to the misuse of billions of dollars in FTX customer funds.
That creates two competing ways of looking at the hire.
One is that a person who admits wrongdoing, cooperates with investigators and serves a criminal sentence should have a path back into professional life.
The other is that Ellison’s specific history makes a position involving financial infrastructure and funding unusually sensitive.
Manifund itself appears to understand that tension. Chen acknowledged that some users, donors and partners might become reluctant to work with the organization because of the decision.
What did Caroline Ellison do in the FTX case?
Ellison was the CEO of Alameda Research, the cryptocurrency trading firm closely connected to Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX exchange.
After FTX collapsed in November 2022, Ellison began cooperating with U.S. authorities.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, Ellison pleaded guilty on December 19, 2022 to seven federal counts.
Those counts included two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, two counts of wire fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit commodities fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering.
She later became one of the prosecution’s most important cooperating witnesses in Bankman-Fried’s criminal trial and testified about the relationship between FTX and Alameda and the use of FTX customer funds.
Bankman-Fried was convicted on seven criminal counts. In March 2024, a federal judge sentenced him to 25 years in prison for what the Justice Department described as multiple fraudulent schemes involving FTX and Alameda Research.
How long was Caroline Ellison in prison?
In September 2024, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan sentenced Ellison to two years in prison. Her sentence also included three years of supervised release.
The prison term was substantially shorter than the potential maximum sentences attached to the charges against her, with her extensive cooperation with prosecutors playing an important role at sentencing.
Even so, the judge concluded that the scale of the FTX fraud meant a sentence involving incarceration was still necessary.
Ellison was also subject to an approximately $11 billion forfeiture order.
She began serving her prison sentence in November 2024. She was later transferred from federal prison to community confinement, which can include a halfway house or home confinement.
On January 21, 2026, Ellison was released from Federal Bureau of Prisons custody after approximately 14 months, according to a BOP spokesperson quoted by Business Insider.
That means she did not spend the full two-year sentence in federal custody. Her release also did not eliminate the other legal and regulatory restrictions resulting from the FTX case.
Caroline Ellison still faces long-term regulatory restrictions
Ellison’s return to employment does not mean all consequences of the FTX case have ended.
In December 2025, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said Ellison had consented to a proposed final judgment that included permanent antifraud injunctions, a five-year conduct-based injunction and a 10-year officer-and-director bar.
The SEC’s December 2025 litigation release covered Ellison as well as former FTX executives Gary Wang and Nishad Singh.
There is also a separate Commodity Futures Trading Commission case.
On August 19, 2026, the CFTC announced supplemental consent orders against Ellison and Wang.
For Ellison, the order imposes a five-year trading ban and a 10-year CFTC registration ban. Importantly, the CFTC said those periods run from the date of the original consent order, which was entered on December 23, 2022, rather than beginning with the August 2026 announcement.
The CFTC also said Ellison must continue cooperating with the Commission.
Her new Manifund position therefore arrives while regulatory restrictions connected to the FTX case remain relevant.
Is Caroline Ellison banned from working in finance?
No single source cited above establishes a blanket prohibition preventing Ellison from holding any job connected to money or financial operations.
Instead, the restrictions are more specific. The SEC action includes an officer-and-director bar and conduct-based restrictions, while the CFTC order includes trading and registration bans.
That distinction matters when discussing her new position at Manifund. Saying that Ellison is “banned from finance” would be broader than what these regulatory orders actually state.
What has Caroline Ellison said about her new job?
In Manifund’s announcement, Ellison again acknowledged her conduct at Alameda and FTX and said she understood why some people might not want to work with her.
She also said she was grateful for an opportunity to be judged on her current work and described Manifund as an organization whose mission she believes in.
For Ellison, the job appears to represent the most public step so far in rebuilding a professional life after the FTX criminal case.
For Manifund, the hiring is also a test of whether users and donors accept the organization’s argument that rehabilitation can coexist with the reputational risks created by Ellison’s history.
Why Caroline Ellison could remain in the news
Her new job is not the only reason public interest in Ellison is likely to continue.
Netflix is preparing an eight-episode limited series called The Altruists, centered on Sam Bankman-Fried and Caroline Ellison and the rise and collapse of FTX.
Julia Garner will portray Caroline Ellison, while Anthony Boyle will play Sam Bankman-Fried.
According to Netflix’s official announcement, all eight episodes are scheduled to begin streaming on November 19, 2026.
The series could introduce the FTX story to an audience far beyond cryptocurrency markets and renew searches for Ellison, Bankman-Fried, Alameda Research and the people who played central roles in the scandal.
Where is Caroline Ellison now?
As of September 2026, Caroline Ellison is working full time at Manifund.
She is no longer in Federal Bureau of Prisons custody, although her criminal sentence included supervised release and she remains subject to regulatory restrictions arising from the FTX case.
Her current work at Manifund includes technical infrastructure, operations, customer support and work connected to the organization’s funding platform and philanthropic research.
The September announcement also confirmed something Manifund users had not known for weeks: the researcher and operator they had been seeing publicly as “Carol” was Caroline Ellison.
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Frequently asked questions
What is Caroline Ellison doing now?
Caroline Ellison is working full time at Manifund, a nonprofit grantmaking platform. According to Manifund, her responsibilities include technical infrastructure, operations, customer support and work related to philanthropic funding.
What is Caroline Ellison’s new job?
Manifund currently lists Ellison under the name “Carol N” as Senior Researcher & Ops. The organization says she is also helping develop its funding platform and research how philanthropic money can be directed effectively.
When did Caroline Ellison join Manifund?
Ellison began a work trial on July 13, 2026 and moved into a full-time role on August 10. Manifund publicly revealed her identity on September 11, 2026.
Why was Caroline Ellison called “Carol”?
Ellison worked under the pseudonym “Carol” during her initial work trial. She said she did not want to make a major public announcement before knowing whether the organization would offer her a permanent position.
Is Manifund a cryptocurrency company?
No. Manifund is a U.S. 501(c)(3) nonprofit focused on charitable funding and grantmaking. It is not a cryptocurrency exchange or trading company.
Does Manifund have a connection to FTX?
Yes, historically. Austin Chen says the FTX Future Fund approved an approximately $500,000 grant around April 2022 for the charity-prediction-market project associated with Manifold for Charity, which later developed into Manifund.
When was Caroline Ellison released from federal custody?
Ellison was released from Federal Bureau of Prisons custody on January 21, 2026 after approximately 14 months in custody, according to a BOP spokesperson quoted by Business Insider.
How long was Caroline Ellison sentenced to prison?
She was sentenced in September 2024 to two years in prison and three years of supervised release. She was released from federal custody before serving the full two years.
Is Caroline Ellison banned from working in finance?
The regulatory restrictions are more specific than a blanket ban on all financial employment. They include a 10-year SEC officer-and-director bar and CFTC trading and registration bans, among other restrictions.
Who plays Caroline Ellison in the Netflix FTX series?
Julia Garner plays Caroline Ellison in Netflix’s eight-episode limited series The Altruists. Anthony Boyle plays Sam Bankman-Fried. Netflix says the series will begin streaming on November 19, 2026.
The bottom line
Caroline Ellison’s return to work is more complicated than a former FTX executive simply getting another job.
She joined an organization with historical links to the FTX Future Fund, spent almost two months working publicly under another name, and is now helping operate systems related to philanthropic funding while regulatory restrictions stemming from the FTX case remain relevant.
For Ellison, Manifund represents an attempt to rebuild her professional life after one of the most consequential cryptocurrency fraud cases in U.S. history.
For Manifund, hiring her is a public test of rehabilitation, transparency and trust.
And with Netflix preparing to retell the FTX story later this year, searches for Caroline Ellison — including where she is now and what job she has after prison — are unlikely to disappear anytime soon.