The identical enterprise bets that helped construct Sam Bankman-Fried’s empire have turn out to be a case research in promoting too early.
Because the FTX chapter property raced to repay collectors, it offloaded early stakes in corporations that went on to rank among the many most beneficial names in AI and fintech, usually for a tiny fraction of what they might later command.
“That man knew the best way to commerce along with his shopper’s cash, he simply ran out of time,” one consumer quipped.
The Cursor stake offered at price
Alameda Analysis wrote a $200,000 examine into Anysphere, the maker of AI coding software Cursor, throughout a 2022 pre-seed spherical.
With this, they secured roughly 5% of the corporate, in accordance with Forbes’ accounting of the agency’s startup holdings.
In 2023, the property offered that place again at price, treating a then-obscure developer software as a minor asset to clear.
The size of the miss grew to become clear this week, after SpaceX agreed to a $60 billion all-stock deal to accumulate Cursor, constructing on a name choice the rocket firm first secured in April 2026.
At that valuation, the discarded 5% stake can be price about $3 billion. On paper, a place the property let go for pocket change would now rank among the many most beneficial property it ever touched.
“SBF’s sleepless jail nights simply bought worse… In 2022, Alameda (FTX) dropped $200k into Cursor pre-seed → ~5% stake at a ~$4M valuation. FTX chapter offered your entire place again at price. At this time, that 5% can be price $3B – a 15,000x return,” commented John LeFevre.
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Anthropic Defines the Remorse
FTX poured about $500 million into Anthropic in 2021, one of many largest personal checks written into an AI lab earlier than ChatGPT existed.
This left it near an 8% holding within the firm based by former OpenAI researchers Dario and Daniela Amodei.
With court docket approval, the property offered that stake in two 2024 tranches:
- About $884 million to a gaggle of institutional consumers in March and
- An extra $452 million that June, for roughly $1.3 billion mixed.
Anthropic has since raised a $30 billion spherical at a $380 billion post-money valuation, per the corporate’s personal disclosure.
That very same 8% stake would now be price greater than $30 billion, an exit BeInCrypto flagged as a multi-billion-dollar miss whereas Bankman-Fried sat in jail.
“He made all these bets at 29, whereas operating a $32B trade…The property simply wasn’t allowed to carry them. Say no matter you need. The person had the attention,” investor Sjuul added.
The proceeds nonetheless helped push creditor recoveries towards full compensation.
Nevertheless, the roughly 23-fold hole between the sale worth and right this moment’s worth is the clearest signal of how misery promoting clashed with frontier-tech timing.
Robinhood, Solana, Sui Spherical out the Listing
The sample repeats throughout SBF’s different compelled exits.
Emergent Constancy Applied sciences, the Antigua-registered automobile Bankman-Fried managed, purchased a 7.6% stake in Robinhood for about $648 million in 2022.
After the collapse, US prosecutors seized the shares, and in 2023 the US Marshals Service offered 55.3 million of them again to Robinhood at $10.96 apiece, a $605.7 million deal.
That very same block can be price greater than $5 billion at Robinhood’s present valuation close to $87 billion.
Solana (SOL) cuts nearer to residence, since Alameda had been one of many token’s earliest backers.
Underneath a court-approved course of in 2024, the property offered roughly 30 million locked SOL at about $64 every, with Galaxy Digital and Pantera Capital among the many largest consumers.
SOL later peaked close to $293 in early 2025 earlier than sliding to about $74 right this moment, which leaves these discounted Solana gross sales wanting pricey primarily in opposition to the 2025 highs quite than the present worth.
In a separate 2023 settlement, Mysten Labs purchased again FTX’s Sui (SUI) fairness and token warrants for about $96 million, near the roughly $101 million the trade had paid a yr earlier.
Taken collectively, the exits hint a portfolio of early entry to standout corporations undone by a chapter that compelled fast gross sales to repay defrauded prospects.
“Sam Bankman-Fried is the best investor of all time…Meaning if he weren’t in jail right this moment and nonetheless owned all this fairness, he’d be price ~$100 billion… He’d be prime 20 richest folks on the earth,” said Alex Finn, Founder/CEO of Henry Clever Machines PBC.
The property, run by restructuring veteran John J. Ray III, wanted money on a court docket timeline quite than the persistence a enterprise fund can afford.
Whether or not it offered too cheaply or just couldn’t wait is a debate that sharpens with each new funding spherical and acquisition tied to its former holdings.
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