Back in 2021, Sam Bankman-Fried's FTX invested $500 million in a San Francisco startup named Anthropic. Since then, that AI company has exploded in value, to around $20 billion, and FTX's shares have become a hotly contested aspect of the crypto exchange's bankruptcy case.
FTX now says it has reached deals with 24 different buyers to sell $884 million worth of its shares, or two thirds of the total shares it owns.
In a Delaware bankruptcy court filing from Friday, FTX revealed the top buyer to be ATIC Third International Investment, which is associated with the United Arab Emirates' sovereign Wealth Fund, Mubadala. The organization plans to buy $500 million worth of shares if the court approves the transaction.
The second largest buyer was Jane Street Global Trading, LLC, which has agreed to buy almost $100 million of shares. Ironically, Jane Street is the hedge fund that launched the careers and lended credibility to both Bankman-Fried and Caroline Ellison, the former CEO of Alameda Research — the sister company of FTX whose risky trading contributed to its downfall.
Other buyers of note are the Ford Foundation, the Omidyar Network Fund and various funds managed by Fidelity Management.
FTX was once valued at $32 billion but completely collapsed in 2022 after reports circled that it was using customer funds to make up for trading losses at Alameda Research. Bankman-Fried was found guilty of seven counts of fraud and conspiracy and is expected to be sentenced in New York this Thursday, where a maximum sentence could mean as many as 100 years in prison.
