To be fair to Will, he does acknowledge that Nishad’s insurance fund code “seems like really quite clear fraud”, if comparatively minor.
As for the other code snippets in your link—the “backdoor”—Nishad and Gary said the intention was to support Alameda’s role as a backstop liquidity provider (which FTX was heavily dependent on in its early days to function):
“[Wang] testified about several changes Bankman-Fried asked him to make to FTX’s software code to allow Alameda to withdraw unlimited funds from the exchange. . . . Wang agreed that the changes were necessary for Alameda to provide liquidity on the exchange” (Reuters)
“Singh also acknowledged that he originally thought some of the special treatment Bankman-Fried’s trading firm Alameda Research received on FTX was meant to protect customers by allowing it to more effectively ‘backstop’ some trades. ‘My view at the time [was that] it would be helpful for customers,’ Singh said” (Financial Times)
Thanks for the summary. One nitpick:
To be fair to Will, he does acknowledge that Nishad’s insurance fund code “seems like really quite clear fraud”, if comparatively minor.
As for the other code snippets in your link—the “backdoor”—Nishad and Gary said the intention was to support Alameda’s role as a backstop liquidity provider (which FTX was heavily dependent on in its early days to function):
“[Wang] testified about several changes Bankman-Fried asked him to make to FTX’s software code to allow Alameda to withdraw unlimited funds from the exchange. . . . Wang agreed that the changes were necessary for Alameda to provide liquidity on the exchange” (Reuters)
“Singh also acknowledged that he originally thought some of the special treatment Bankman-Fried’s trading firm Alameda Research received on FTX was meant to protect customers by allowing it to more effectively ‘backstop’ some trades. ‘My view at the time [was that] it would be helpful for customers,’ Singh said” (Financial Times)