- FTX’s sale of Anthropic shares nets over $450 million, adding to a total profit of $800 million.
- The cost of FTX’s bankruptcy has exceeded $700 million in legal and administrative fees.
The bankruptcy procedures of FTX are still ongoing, even though Sam Bankman-Fried, the company’s founder, has had his trial ended. The FTX estate, under the direction of CEO John Ray III, has disclosed that it is selling the remaining shares in Anthropic, the AI company that developed the chatbot Claude.
According to the most recent bankruptcy papers, FTX made more than $450 million from the sale of 15 million shares for about $30 apiece.
FTX made roughly $800 million in profit overall from its $500 million initial investment in Anthropic, which has since returned about $1.3 billion. The price per share of sales was the same as in the initial transaction from March.
Significantly, the largest buyer in this round was the international venture capital firm G Squared, which paid $135 million for 4.5 million shares. The bulk of the 20 remaining purchasers of Anthropic shares were other venture capital funds.
A Ballooning Bankruptcy Cost
Legal and administrative costs associated with FTX’s bankruptcy have already exceeded $700 million, according to a tracker kept up to date by bankruptcy specialist Mr Purple. FTX creditors have criticized this large outlay, especially with reference to Sullivan and Cromwell, the main legal company handling FTX’s bankruptcy.
FTX fees have now officially crossed $700mm. pic.twitter.com/WTQKs0bgtv
— Mr. Purple 🛡️ (@MrPurple_DJ) June 1, 2024
Prior to FTX’s bankruptcy, the firm also represented the company; this possible conflict of interest resulted in the class-action lawsuit and the appointment of an independent examiner.
A New York Times investigation conducted the previous year revealed that legal firms have charged hundreds of millions of dollars for the bankruptcy of cryptocurrency companies.
High Costs and FTX CEO Compensation
Since the dispute began, FTX CEO John Ray has billed the estate $5.6 million at a $1,300 hourly fee. Using the monetary amount at the time of the bankruptcy filing, the estate intends to pay back 98% of its creditors and at least 118% of permitted claims.
The FTX estate chose an auction to sell locked Solana tokens, as ETHNews previously reported, underscoring even more the drastic measures taken to ease the financial crisis and maximize asset recovery for creditors.