Athletes, venture capitalists and others among victims of FTX collapse

FTX, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world, quickly collapsed.

FTX, Alameda Research Trading Company, West Realm Series, and 130 affiliates filed for bankruptcy protection late last week, just days after another cryptocurrency exchange pulled out of a deal to acquire it and reported signals alarm raised during due diligence. The troubled company would also be subject to potential government investigations.

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Its founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, resigned as CEO on Friday, leaving the reins to former Enron liquidator John J. Ray III. Bankman-Fried and company have been accused of secretly transferring funds from FTX clients to his trading company, according to Reuters.

Here is some eentities and individuals potentially impacted by the collapse of FTX.

Capital Sequoia

Sequoia Capital had “limited” exposure to FTX, with one fund investing $150 million in FTX.com and FTX US and the other investing $63.5 million, according a note the venture capital firm sent to limited partners and shared Nov. 9 on Twitter.

“FTX is not in the fund’s top ten positions, and our $150 million cost base represents less than 3% of the fund’s committed capital,” Sequoia said of its investment in Global Growth Fund III. “The $150 million loss is offset by approximately $7.5 billion of realized and unrealized gains in the same fund, so the fund remains in good shape.”

The other FTX position was equivalent to “less than 1% of the SCGE fund’s portfolio as of 9/30/2022 (at fair value),” according to Sequoia Capital.

The venture capital firm said it had decided to “return our investment to $0”.

Soft Bank

SoftBank has participated in FTX fundraisers in the past, including contributing to Series C which raised $400 million for the cryptocurrency exchange, according to a press release in late January.

MarketWatch reported on Friday that a SoftBank executive, Yoshimitsu Goto, said a minor investment, less than $100 million, had been made in FTX by the company. Anonymous sources told Reuters and Bloomberg that SoftBank was likely considering writing it off as a total loss.

Tom Brady and Gisele Bundchen

Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady and his now ex-wife Gisele Bundchen reached an agreement with FTX in June 2021 in which he became an ambassador and she became an advisor for environmental and social initiatives, FTX announced in a press release at the time.

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They each took a stake in FTX as part of the partnership, as well as in the cryptocurrency, according to the statement.

Due to the stock market filing for bankruptcy, the stakes in the company lost value.

Stephen Curry

Golden State Warriors point guard Stephen Curry signed a “long-term partnership” with FTX in September of last year. He became a global ambassador for FTX, a role intended to “expand the reach of the FTX brand and tout the viability of the cryptocurrency to new audiences,” according to a statement announcing the deal.

For his ambassador contract, Curry received a stake in the company, FTX said at the time. His foundation has also reportedly agreed to partner with charitable efforts.

Clients

The number of affected FTX clients remains unclear at this time.

Court documents recently submitted to a US bankruptcy court by FTX lawyers suggest that more than one million creditors could be affected. The company said there were 100,000 creditors — most of whom are customers — they were aware of, FOX Business previously reported.

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FTX’s native token, FTT, has also seen its value drop precipitously in recent days. The CEO of Binance, another cryptocurrency exchange, said on Sunday that it has stopped accepting FTT deposits, and others have reportedly removed the token from the list.

FOX Business has reached out to Sequoia Capital and SoftBank for comment, along with a representative from Curry. A rep for Brady declined to comment.