The sale of FTX’s $500 million stake in artificial intelligence startup Anthropic has reportedly been delayed, potentially delaying the failed crypto exchange’s bid to fill the remaining $2 billion on its balance sheet.
June 27. Bloomberg reported — citing people familiar with the matter — FTX advisory investment bank Parella Weinberg Partners this month suspended the sale of FTX’s stake in Anthropic, despite several parties interested in buying FTX’s stake.
Selling the stake would represent a significant cash boost for FTX. AND Report of June 26 according to FTX restructuring chief John Ray, $8.7 billion in user funds was embezzled, of which about $7 billion was recovered.
FTX suspends anthropic sell-off. Smart move.
It is crucial to sell the losers first.
Anthropic tokenization could also synergize well with FTX 2.0 as an exclusive listing. pic.twitter.com/WJd900JBYw
— FTX 2.0 Coalition (@AFTXcreditor) June 27, 2023
A few buyers were reportedly interested in FTX’s Anthropic piece before the hiatus. In early June, Semafor announced that FTX was AI company promotion potential investors.
FTX held $500 million in the value of anthropic stocks in at the time of her bankruptcy in November 2022, which is now expected to be worth much more with the AI boom in full swing.
On May 23, the Anthropic report hit worth $4.6 billion and raised $450 million in its latest funding round. Anthropic offers an AI chatbot called “Claude,” which it says can be deployed for a variety of uses, including sales, customer service and web search.
At the time of its bankruptcy, FTX’s stake in AI was one of its largest holdings beyond the public investment of 1.15 billion dollars in cryptominer Genesis Digital Assets.
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The news of the sale suspension comes just days after Ray’s report of alleged misappropriation and commingling of FTX customer funds, which claimed FTX had $2 billion to potentially recover all assets.
FTX Debtors has released its second investigative report detailing the commingling and misuse of customer deposits on https://t.co/Svd0COiEpS from the previous FTX Group management team: https://t.co/jtz3vI0jBY
— FTX (@FTX_Official) June 26, 2023
The report contained details of thousands of dollars in “grants” that were allegedly provided specialized non-cryptocurrency projects.
The report also details alleged investments in venture capital firms, a $243 million Bahamian real estate portfolio, along with donations to nonprofits and a political action committee run by Gabe Bankman-Fried — the younger brother of FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Smazeny.
Cointelegraph reached out to Parella Weinberg Partners and Anthropic for comment, but did not receive an immediate response.