Alameda Research was no longer paying loan shark interest rates to borrow tens of millions of dollars from effective altruists. The new crypto lenders like Celsius and Genesis were willing to hand Alameda Research collectively between $10 billion and $15 billion at rates as low as 6 percent. The rate of return inside Alameda was steadily declining, but with access to vast amounts of cheap capital, its raw trading profits kept rising: from $50 million in 2018, to $100 million in 2019, to $1 billion in 2020 and again in 2021.
