On the eve of the first big hearing in the US Congress this week that will investigate FTX’s collapse, The Australian Financial Review has learnt that FTX founders Sam Bankman-Fried and Zixiao “Gary” Wang, along with FTX engineer Nishad Singh and former Alameda Research chief executive Caroline Ellison, used a chat group on Signal in the hope that the information would remain hidden.FTX was a cryptocurrency marketplace where celebrity ambassadors such as National Football League quarterback Tom Brady invited customers to open accounts and trade digital currencies such as bitcoin and ether.It has been just over one month since FTX filed for US bankruptcy court protection, owing its 50 biggest creditors nearly $US3.1 billion ($4.6 billion).FTX Australia administrators KordaMentha said last month that there was $42 million in bank accounts linked to the local FTX operations and that “very significant” sums were still outstanding.“But as the committee still thinks it would be useful, I am willing to testify on the 13th.”It has been reported that Alameda Research’s former chief executive, Ms Ellison, has retained a former top cryptocurrency regulator for the US Securities and Exchange Commission and current chair of the securities and financial services department at law firm WilmerHale to assist her with the FTX fallout."