The CEO of FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried, copied the Robinhood model of using the data his exchange gives him access to, to trade against his own customers.

The CEO of FTX exchange, Sam Bankman-Fried, was the ***number one volume trader*** on another cryptocurrency exchange, Bitfinex during Febuary 2020. Why would the CEO of FTX trade in such enormous volume on another exchange that is owned by Tether/Bitfinex?

The answer is simple: he uses his own private FTX analytics to front run his customers...and he is proud of it too! In this video he posted to FTX's official youtube, you can watch him and his team front run FTX users in real time as he proudly moves massive amounts of liquidity back and forth between exchanges.

There was a lawsuit in 2019 (Case No. 3:19-cv-07245) alleging Sam Bankman Fried is racketeering and counter trading his customers, but of course Sam Bankman Fried lawyered up and settled the case. It wouldn't be the first time Sam Bankman-Fried bribes people, as he was Joe Biden's largest donor, second to only Michael Bloomberg.

EDIT: For legal disclaimer, front running has specific legal definitions and I don't have enough proof to say that this is 100% happening. There's a lot of smoke, but I don't have a smoking gun. In order to have a smoking gun, I would have to be in the room witnessing such an act happening and have access to a spreadsheet of their trades.