FTX Freezes Sale of $500 Million Stake in AI Startup Anthropic

On June 28, it was reported that the investment bank acting as an adviser to FTX, informed bidders this month about the sale suspension.

Multiple interested buyers have requested and assessed private information about the Anthropic stake over the past couple of months. However, Perella Weinberg Partners reportedly asked potential bidders to sign non-disclosure agreements, reported Bloomberg.

FTX pauses Anthropic sale. Wise move.

Selling losers first is crucial.

Anthropic tokenisation might also synergise well with FTX 2.0, as an exclusive listing. pic.twitter.com/WJd900JBYw

— FTX 2.0 Coalition (@AFTXcreditor) June 27, 2023

FTX Still Keen on AI Firm

FTX was reportedly seeking “nine figures” for a share of the startup amid all of the current hype surrounding the tech world’s latest big thing – artificial intelligence. It appears now that the firm sees greater potential for the AI startup.

The privately-held AI firm Anthropic was founded in 2021 by former OpenAI employees. It was valued at $4.6 billion in June by Semafor following a $450 million funding round in May to support the development of its AI bot, dubbed Claude.

FTX and Alameda made a $500 million investment in Anthropic, but the embattled crypto company still has a $1.7 billion shortfall in its balance sheet.

FTX’s stake in Anthropic was one of its largest holdings at the time of its bankruptcy. Its largest was the $1.1 billion investment in crypto miner Genesis Digital Assets.

The sale would have provided a significant amount of capital to go towards recovery and recompense for creditors.

The Anthropic sale freeze comes just a day after FTX debtors released their second investigative report.

The FTX Debtors noted that the FTX exchange owed customers approximately $8.7 billion as of the petition date. However, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Restructuring Officer John Ray III said that the  “remain committed to recovering as much value as possible for creditors.”

The new management claims to have made substantial progress in recovering around $7 billion in liquid assets so far.

Crypto Market Outlook

Crypto markets have remained sideways for another day with total capitalization where it was this time yesterday at $1.22 trillion.

Bitcoin was up half a percent at $30,456 but it remains stuck at heavy resistance. In mid-April, it reached similar price levels but failed to break out above them. The second run up to $30K is leading to a double top chart formation which could potentially spell another pull pack.