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

Report cited 2021 funding round where company raised $420 million from big name investors

Published: November 19, 2022 13:03 Reuters

FTX Sam Bankman Fried — FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried said in a tweet Thursday that the firm is "100% liquid" and "not financially impacted" by FTX International's problems. FTX US's trading may be halted in a few days and users should close down any positions, according to a notice from the website. Withdrawals will remain open, it said. Image Credit: Bloomberg photo by Ting Shen

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried sold a stake in the company worth $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 $420 million from a clutch of big name investors including Temasek and Tiger Global, valuing the crypto exchange at $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.