Former FTX Chief Operating Officer Constance Wang has criticized Netflix’s The Altruists for framing the exchange’s collapse as a toxic romance story. Wang said Sam Bankman-Fried was chiefly focused on effective altruism and changing the world, while employees were largely unaware of his relationship with Caroline Ellison. She also disputed the trailer’s portrayal of Bankman-Fried and Ellison, saying it makes them appear more confident, forceful and emotionally dramatic than they were in reality. Wang recalled that customers withdrew about $6 billion from FTX within 72 hours after Binance founder CZ said he would sell FTT, the exchange’s platform token, and that she later saw an estimated $8 billion shortfall in the company’s war room. Bankman-Fried is serving a 25-year sentence for fraud and money laundering, while Ellison pleaded guilty, testified against him and was released this January after about 14 months in prison. FTX’s bankruptcy estate has recovered about $16.5 billion and plans to repay customers at least 118% of their account balances, calculated using November 2022 asset prices. Wang, who was investigated by the U.S. Department of Justice but was not charged, later co-founded crypto exchange Pacifica in 2025, which recorded $10 billion in trading volume over the past month, according to DefiLlama.