FTX: Investment returns and creditor protection
The Anthropic case and asset management in insolvency proceedings
In the years preceding its bankruptcy in November 2022, FTX and Alameda Research had built an extensive portfolio of stakes in private companies, fund investments, loans and crypto-assets. Some of these investments had been financed through the unlawful use of customer funds, a central element of the fraud for which Sam Bankman-Fried was convicted. Once insolvency proceedings began, the assets came under the control of the administrators responsible for recovering funds and organising repayments to creditors. In the following years, asset recovery was shaped by market developments and the growth of some of the companies in the portfolio, making decisions on whether to retain or sell investments an important part of the administration of the estate.
The stake in Anthropic provides an opportunity to examine these issues together. In 2022, the FTX group invested $500 million in the company, subsequently selling its entire holding in 2024 for approximately $1.34 billion. In May 2026, Anthropic raised $65 billion at a post-money valuation of $965 billion. Its growth following the sale has renewed interest in the original investment and the circumstances of its disposal. Between the acquisition and the latest valuations, however, the company raised further capital, ownership percentages changed and the shares passed to new investors. Reconstructing this sequence makes it possible to assess the profitability of the initial investment, the evolution of the holding’s value and the discretion available to the estate, taking into account both the prospects for asset appreciation and obligations towards creditors.
The investment and its sale
In April 2022, the FTX group invested $500 million in Anthropic as part of a $580 million funding round. The investment was made through an affiliate of Alameda Research, the crypto-asset trading and investment firm founded by Bankman-Fried and closely connected to FTX. The initial holding represented 13.56% of the company’s equity on a fully diluted basis. When FTX and Alameda entered US Chapter 11 proceedings in November 2022, the Anthropic shares became part of the assets to be managed to recover funds for creditors.
By January 2024, following further funding rounds at Anthropic, the group’s stake had fallen to 7.84%, representing relative dilution of approximately 42% from the initial holding. On 29 February 2024, the court authorised the sale of the shares, approving procedures that allowed the disposal to be divided into several transactions and its timing to be adjusted. The court documents therefore establish authorisation to sell, rather than an obligation to dispose of the holding immediately. The sale subsequently took place in two transactions. On 22 March 2024, a proposal was filed to sell approximately 29.5 million shares, representing around two-thirds of FTX’s holding, for $884 million. On 31 May 2024, a proposal was filed for the remaining approximately 15 million shares, for a further $452 million. Both transactions provided for a price of $30 per share. Completion of the two sales marked FTX’s full exit from Anthropic and generated total proceeds of approximately $1.34 billion, equivalent to 2.7 times the initial investment.
The FTX and Alameda portfolio
At the time of the bankruptcy in November 2022, FTX and Alameda’s venture capital portfolio comprised 438 positions, representing approximately $4.5 billion in invested capital. The portfolio review submitted to the court in September 2023 included equity stakes, fund investments, tokens and loans, while excluding certain holdings owned by entities outside the proceedings. Among the largest positions were Genesis Digital Assets, with approximately $1.15 billion invested, and Anthropic, with $500 million. The initial asset disposals produced mixed results: by 31 August 2023, sales and agreements covering 22 positions had generated proceeds of $588 million against invested capital of $673 million, corresponding to a reported recovery of 87%. This figure covered a limited portion of the portfolio and preceded the Anthropic sale; it therefore cannot be interpreted as a measure of the overall profitability of the investments.
Individual transactions confirm the variation in outcomes. In April 2023, Mysten Labs repurchased the equity stake and rights to purchase SUI tokens for approximately $96 million. The group had acquired them for around $102 million, resulting in a modest nominal loss relative to the capital invested. In May of the same year, LedgerX was sold for approximately $50 million, against an acquisition cost approaching $300 million in 2021, with a reported loss of around $250 million. In August 2023, Robinhood repurchased shares seized by the US authorities for approximately $606 million; the transaction proceeds alone, however, do not establish the return on the original investment. In 2024, the two Anthropic sales generated total proceeds of approximately $1.34 billion, with published reports indicating a gain of around $800 million before the costs of the proceedings. In April of the same year, the sale of a tranche of SOL generated proceeds of between $1.6 billion and $1.9 billion, without a publicly disclosed gain or loss measured against the original cost of the tokens sold. Those tokens were also subject to restrictions on availability extending over the following four years. Overall, the portfolio shows varied results: substantial returns on some holdings, significant losses on others, and transactions for which public information establishes the proceeds received but does not allow the full investment return to be reconstructed.
The value of the holding after dilution
Estimating the value that FTX’s former holding might have reached requires accounting for the effects of Anthropic’s subsequent capital increases. Applying the 7.84% stake held in January 2024 to a hypothetical valuation of $2 trillion ahead of a possible public listing produces a theoretical value of $156.8 billion. This estimate nevertheless assumes that the percentage held in January 2024 remained unchanged, without accounting for subsequent changes in the ownership structure. A reliable valuation would require reconstructing changes in the company’s capital, any conversions of financial instruments, the rights attached to the shares and the restrictions on transferring the holding. It would also be necessary to distinguish valuations established in completed funding rounds from market expectations and to account for any additional investment required to maintain the 7.84% stake. Without sufficient public information, the figure represents a simplified counterfactual scenario rather than a verified measure of the value FTX would have retained. Anthropic’s growth therefore indicates a potential opportunity cost associated with the sale, but that cost cannot be quantified solely by reference to subsequent valuations.
Creditor repayments and the comparison with Mt. Gox
The assessment of creditor repayments also depends on the benchmark used. For the July 2026 distribution, FTX reported cumulative recoveries of 105% for the main customer classes and 120% for the convenience class of smaller claims. These percentages are calculated against allowed claims denominated in dollars, based on the values recognised at the time of the bankruptcy in November 2022. Repayment exceeding 100% of an allowed claim does not, however, amount to the return of the same quantity of crypto-assets originally deposited, nor does it fully capture the economic cost of their unavailability during the proceedings. Recovery can therefore exceed the nominal value of the recognised claim while remaining below the value the assets would have reached had they remained available to the customer. These are distinct benchmarks, both relevant to assessing the economic outcome of the proceedings.
The Mt. Gox case illustrates this distinction. The Japanese bitcoin exchange, which failed in 2014, entered civil rehabilitation proceedings in June 2018. This suspended the bankruptcy proceedings and allowed bitcoin-denominated claims to be preserved without conversion into monetary claims at the outset of the new process. By 24 July 2024, repayments in bitcoin and bitcoin cash had been made to more than 17,000 creditors through the direct distribution of some of the available crypto-assets. For this portion of the repayments, the economic value received by creditors reflected asset prices at the time of distribution and therefore incorporated the appreciation that had occurred during the proceedings. The comparison with FTX shows how the extent to which an allowed claim is satisfied can differ from the creditor’s actual economic recovery: a payment exceeding the recognised dollar claim may still fall below the market value of the crypto-assets originally deposited.
Conclusions
The Anthropic investment proved particularly profitable, generating proceeds of approximately $1.34 billion against an initial investment of $500 million. The company’s subsequent growth makes a substantially higher potential value for the former holding plausible, but dilution in later years prevents that value from being estimated by applying current valuations directly to the historical ownership percentage. The realised return is therefore documented, while the opportunity cost of the sale remains uncertain.
The FTX case also highlights the difference between monetary repayment of claims and the return of the crypto-assets originally deposited. Dollar repayments measured against claims recognised at the bankruptcy date can satisfy an allowed claim in full without compensating for the appreciation those assets would have recorded had they remained available to customers, as the comparison with Mt. Gox illustrates. Assessing the outcome of the proceedings therefore requires distinguishing investment returns, the potential value of assets and creditors’ economic recovery.
