Nishad Singh is an American citizen of Indian origin who is known for being the Director of Engineering at FTX Exchange. In 2022, Nishad Singh made headlines during the crash and bankruptcy of FTX Exchange as a close acquaintance of Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of FTX and trading firm Alameda Research.When Nishad was a child, he used to run marathons. At the age of 12, he completed the Silicon Valley half-marathon. He also became the second person in the US to complete an ultramarathon within the 30-hour time limit for which he took training from his coach and stepfather Rajeev Patel.He holds the world record for being the fastest under-17 runner to complete an ultramarathon. He has run various marathons including Ruth Anderson Ultra 50km (USA) in 2010 and 2012, Quicksilver 50 km Endurance Run (USA) in 2010 and 2013, Ruth Anderson Ultra 50mi – 50km Split (USA) in 2011, Ohlone 50K Wilderness Run (USA) in 2011, Run-de-Vous 100 Mile Endurance Run (USA) in 2011 and 2012. However, he had to quit competing in marathons as he suffers from Asthma. Nishad Singh (in red) with his friends after completing a 100-mile run.In 2012, he gave a TED talk at TEDxYouth[email protected].Nishad started his career with a one-month internship at Sierra Ventures in 2011. In 2014, he worked for two months as a software engineering intern at Skyhigh Networks. In 2015, he did a two-month internship as a software engineer at Box. In 2016, he joined Facebook as a software engineering intern and worked there for four months. In 2016, he joined Berkeley Consulting and worked there as a consultant from January 2014 to January 2015, as a project manager from January 2015 to June 2015, as a tech director from June 2015 to June 2016, and as an external vice president from June 2016 to December 2016. In February 2017, he started working as a research assistant at Berkeley RISE Lab. In August 2017, he joined Facebook as a software engineer, where he worked with the Reinforcement Learning team. From December 2017 to April 2019, he worked as the director of engineering at Alameda Research. In April 2019, he joined FTX Crypto Exchange and started working as director of engineering. In January 2022, he started working as an electrical engineer at Steath.In 2022, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges FTX filed for bankruptcy protection following which Sam Bankman-Fried stepped down from the position of CEO of the company. It was reported that Bankman-Fried had secretly transferred $10 billion of customer funds from FTX to his trading company Alameda Research. Consequently, Nishad Singh, who was part of Sam Bankman-Fried’s inner circle, came under public scrutiny when the firm came under the scanner for financial practices that led to the dramatic crash. Nishad and Sam, along with 9 others, lived together in a luxury penthouse in the Bahamas, from where they ran the cryptocurrency empire. Reportedly, Nishad was aware that FTX had secretly transferred customer funds to its sister firm.In early November 2022, FTX collapsed following a report by CoinDesk highlighting potential leverage and solvency concerns involving trading firm Alameda Research. On 6 November 2022, Binance’s CEO Changpeng Zhao tweeted that the company had decided to liquidate any remaining FTT on their books in the light of revelations. FTX sought funding after it received an influx of withdrawal requests it could not fulfil. Sam announced that FTX is facing a serious liquidity crunch and would be acquired by their rival exchange Binance cryptocurrency exchange in a bailout. Soon after, the deal was called off by Binance quoting dissatisfaction with FTX’s handling of finances. On 11 November 2022, the FTX Group filed for bankruptcy.On 12 November 2022, Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison stated that Sam, Nishad, and Gary Wang (Chief Technology Officer) controlled the code, the exchange’s matching engine, and funds. On 14 November 2022, the Justice Department, Securities and Exchange Commission, and Commodity Futures Trading Commission started a criminal investigation into FTX’s funds. According to the reports, there were no transactions after 11 November 2022 due to the bankruptcy. Nishad and his colleagues were being noticed by the local law authorities as they were planning to fly to Dubai because it did not have an extradition treaty with the US.In 2022, Nishad donated $7.9 million to Public Action Committees of Democrat candidates- Women Vote!, Mind the Gap (an organization led by Stanford University academics using Silicon Valley funds to support democratic candidates), and the Senate Majority PAC. In August 2022, he also donated $1.1 million to the LGBTQ Victory Fund Federal political action committee. In an interview, he talked about this and said, I’ve been really excited about Balint because she’s a strong proponent of pandemic prevention. Victory PAC wanted to run an independent expenditure to support Balint, I wanted to empower them to do that. My contribution here was personal and independent from my role at FTX.”.Nishad Singh served on the board of FTX’s philanthropic arm, The FTX Future Fund.