FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried cashed out USD 300 million during funding spree – WSJ

Nov 18 (Reuters) – FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried sold a stake in the company worth USD 300 million when the crypto exchange raised capital last year, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing the firm’s financial records and people familiar with the transaction.

At the time, Bankman-Fried told investors it was a partial reimbursement of money he’d spent to buy out rival Binance’s stake in FTX a few months earlier, the report added.

Bankman-Fried and FTX did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment on the matter.

The Journal’s report cited FTX’s October 2021 funding round where the company had raised USD 420 million from a clutch of big name investors including Temasek and Tiger Global, valuing the crypto exchange at USD 25 billion.

Last week, FTX filed for US bankruptcy protection and Bankman-Fried resigned as chief executive, after Binance walked away from its proposed acquisition.

Several crypto firms have since been bracing for a fallout from the FTX collapse, with many counting their exposure in millions to the beleaguered exchange.

(Reporting by Manya Saini in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)