The trial of FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried is currently underway in New York City. Caroline Ellison – the former CEO of SBF’s hedge fund, Alameda Research, testified for three days last week after pleading guilty to a slew of financial crimes including fraud, money laundering, and conspiracy charges in December 2022. Following her testimony, Ellison was slammed on crypto Twitter not for her actions, but her appearance. 

It's been a tough time for crypto, post-FTX. The industry has been crying out for regulatory clarity, which has seemed for the most part to be falling on deaf ears as far as policymakers are concerned. The bleakness of the bear market endures, layoffs have continued and teams are tightening their belts to survive until the crypto summer – a lot of the blame for which you can lay squarely at the feet of FTX, SBF, Ellison and the others who drove the exchange into the ground. 

There’s a collective sense of trauma felt across the industry, whether personally affected by FTX or not. The blow-up changed the psyche of the people, projects, policymakers and the public about web3. Where there’s pain, people want someone to blame. 

Mean meme culture & crypto Twitter 

Following Ellison’s testimony last week, people took to Twitter to bash her looks and objectify her. An image of Ellison captured in a vehicle arriving at the court, titled “this is the ugliest woman of all time” has gone viral. It’s been seen by over half a million people, with thousands of likes, reshares and comments in only a few days – mostly men degrading her for how she looks. 

The comments dehumanize her, comparing her to a witch, a hobbit, a goblin, and “worse than” the war in Israel, stating “she’s more gruesome than anything coming out of Israel.” Comments also targeted SBF, mocking him about Ellison that “she was the best he could get” even with all that money. Beyond the bullying from Bitcoin bros on Twitter are the Reddit comments, comparing Ellison to the wicked witch from the Wizard of Oz. 

Gary Wang, former FTX executive who was part of SBF’s inner circle and has also pled guilty to several crimes, wasn’t subject to this treatment after his public testimony. 

It’s not just trolls on Twitter, hiding behind anonyminity, who are demeaning Ellison. ABC’s Good Morning America refered to her as Sam Bankman-Fried’s “ex-girlfriend,” as though her status as CEO of Alameda wasn’t sufficient or how we want to categorize women.

A study exploring the objectification of women stated that viewing another person as an object, or less than fully human, is fundamentally an act of denying that a personal has moral status. “Perceiving a persona as lacking in moral status can alter the attitudes and behaviors of the perceiver and cause negative consequences for the targeted individual,” the study says. “Objectification manifested as the denial of moral capacity can negatively affect how targeted individuals, including women, are viewed and treated.”

Maybe female fraudsters challenge the archetype of the woman, unconsciously in the minds of those who prey on their appearance, whether targeting it or idolizing it. The sexism and misogyny prevalent in the reaction online to the Sam Bankman-Fried trial, as well as the greater web3 industry as a whole, is a reminder of the work that still needs to be done to make the space more welcoming for women. 

There are only 13 percent of founding teams in web3 that include at least one woman, and only 3 percent of companies with teams that are exclusively made up of women. To realize a more inclusive, democratic Internet, available to all to access and that women want to join, the public shaming of bad actors mustn’t focus on the females, but rather all involved. 

The FTX trial will continue for the next few weeks, with ongoing witnesses taking the stand to tell their version of the story – how FTX defrauded millions of customers and committed one of the biggest frauds in U.S. history. 

Sam Bankman-Fried, Caroline Ellison, Gary Wang, Adam Yedidia and others involved with FTX and Alameda Research, have and will, be held accountable for their actions. Focusing on the only female’s physical appearance further corrupts a part of crypto’s history that has already hurt too many.