This is obviously just speculation, but there probably wasn't a whole lot of thought put into it by the coder. The goal was "produce a fluctuating number based

This is obviously just speculation, but there probably wasn't a whole lot of thought put into it by the coder. The goal was "produce a fluctuating number based on daily trading volume so that it looks like we have a real insurance fund". The randomness is simply there to help make the fraudulent representation less obvious. The fact that the number can (very rarely) go negative is just another example of the fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants thinking pervasive at FTX.