Written by: Forbes, edited by TechFlow
The crisis of FTX has not only put its customers in trouble, but also hit its investors hard. FTX’s highest valuation is US$32 billion, and its cumulative financing has reached US$1.8 billion, including many top international venture capital institutions. Who is the main "sucker" among them?
Forbes has a list of FTX shareholders that SBF sent to Forbes in August during its coverage of the Forbes 400 list. The following are the main investors:
Sequoia Capital
FTX shares: 1.1%
Estimated investment amount (FTX only): $200 million
Peak value in January 2022: $350 million
The Silicon Valley venture capital fund, known for investing in tech giants such as Apple, Google and Airbnb, invested more than $200 million in FTX. On Wednesday, Sequoia Capital shared a letter on Twitter stating that it would write down its investment in FTX to zero.
However, according to a report published Thursday by The Information, FTX Ventures, a venture capital fund backed by Alameda Research and Bankman-Fried, invested “$200 million” in a fund run by Sequoia and two other firms.
Earlier this year, Sequoia’s investment in FTX was valued at $350 million at its peak, and Sequoia said in a letter to investors that its FTX stake represented less than 3% of committed capital in a fund whose $150 million losses were offset by about $7.5 billion in realized and unrealized gains.
Temasek
FTX shares: 1%
Investment amount: US$205 million
Peak value in January 2022: $320 million
Temasek, an investment firm owned by the Singapore government, is FTX’s second-largest outside investor with 7 million shares. A Temasek spokesman told Reuters on Wednesday that its $320 million stake was on the verge of becoming worthless and that it was “understanding developments” and working with FTX as a shareholder.
Paradigm
FTX shares: 1%
Investment amount: US$215 million
Peak value in January 2022: $315 million
Paradigm, an investment firm “focused on supporting future crypto/Web3 companies and protocols,” invested in the exchange’s Series B and C rounds and owned nearly 7 million shares of FTX as of August. “Sam and FTX have a bright future,” Paradigm co-founder Matt Huang said in July 2021, “and Paradigm is excited to be a part of it.”
Alameda Research also invested at least $20 million in Paradigm, The Information reported.
Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan
FTX shares: 0.4%
Investment amount: US$80 million
Peak value in January 2022: $125 million
The Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, which manages the Canadian province’s pension funds for 333,000 teachers, invested a total of $95 million in FTX and FTX US between late 2021 and early 2022. “While there is uncertainty regarding the future of FTX,” Ontario Teachers’ wrote in a statement, “any financial loss on this investment would have limited impact on the plan as this investment represents less than 0.05% of our total net assets.”
In addition, there are other large investors not mentioned who may suffer heavy losses.
The rest of FTX’s Series B investors, who bought $1 billion in June 2021, hold a 3.5% stake in the exchange. These investors include entities associated with billionaires Paul Tudor Jones, Daniel Loeb, and Israel Englander, as well as companies like Tiger Global Management and SoftBank, which also participated in FTX’s Series C round in January and are likely to become major shareholders as well.
According to the capitalization table, investors in this round (excluding Temasek and Paradigm) hold nearly 1% of FTX's shares and have a paper loss of more than $270 million.
Most affected: FTX employees.
According to the capitalization table, as of August, the company's option pool held 20,858,124 shares, or about 3% of FTX. In January, FTX employees owned up to $950 million worth of stock, which may now be worthless.
Will they get the money back?
SBF made his priorities clear, first the users, then he would focus on investors, according to a series of tweets he posted on Thursday, and then SBF said he would take good care of employees.