John J. Ray III, the new CEO of FTX, cited “the secret exemption of Alameda from certain aspects of FTX.com’s auto-liquidation protocol” among a list of poor security and financial controls that have been uncovered since he took control of the company in the early hours of Nov. 11, shortly before it filed for bankruptcy in a U.S. court.   

The revelation in a court filing, though scant on details, would indicate that Alameda held an advantage when making risky leveraged trades on FTX. Crypto derivatives exchanges such as FTX automatically sell the collateral of traders who borrowed its money to place bets that turned south.