The now-defunct FTX crypto exchange and Anthropic are linked by one of the most remarkable 'what-if trades' in crypto, as an early investment from the bankrupt exchange into an AI company could've been worth tens of billions of dollars today.
How FTX Bought Into Anthropic Before The Collapse
FTX's Anthropic investment began long before the exchange imploded. In April 2022, the company, which was still in its early stages, had raised $580 million, with Sam Bankman-Fried's FTX empire supplying $500 million of that funding, accounting for a staggering 82% of the total raise. The Guardian later reported that following the $500 million investment from CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, the AI company was valued at about $3.4 billion.
Subsequent reports revealed that the FTX estate's holdings dropped to about 7.8% to 8% after later financing rounds diluted earlier investors. That distinction matters because the initial $500 million check had bought FTX a very large early position in Anthropic. However, the bankruptcy-era ownership percentage reflects the cap table after new money from other backers.
At the time FTX collapsed in November 2022, the Anthropic stake was not yet the blockbuster recovery asset it later became. The value of the investment was close to the $500 million purchase price because the AI company had not yet been repriced by the AI boom. Furthermore, the crypto exchange itself had been valued at $32 billion earlier in 2022, according to Axios, before a liquidity crisis exposed the weakness of its crypto exchange model and its links to Alameda Research. This means the crypto exchange was worth more than Anthropic at the time before the legendary 2022 bank run and eventual collapse.
The collapse was swift as FTX filed for Chapter 11 on November 11, 2022, only days after news broke about the exchange's liquidity issues. CEO and founder Bankman-Fried quickly resigned, and the company entered a bankruptcy process focused on finding, selling, and recovering assets for creditors.
What The Early AI Stake Would Be Worth Today After The Boom
Despite the Anthropic stake not appreciating much at the time of the crypto exchange's collapse, it was still one of the estate's most valuable recoveries. In March 2024, CNBC reported that the FTX estate agreed to sell about two-thirds of its shares for roughly $884 million to buyers including ATIC Third International Investment, Jane Street, and Fidelity-linked funds.
That sale implied a value of about $1.3 billion for the full position at the time, which translates to a roughly 160% increase, while Anthropic itself was then valued around $15 billion. The proceeds helped FTX move toward creditor repayments, although customers have objected because claims were generally valued in dollars as of the bankruptcy date, not at later Bitcoin or crypto prices.
Interestingly, if FTX still held the roughly 7.8% Anthropic position later described in bankruptcy sale reports, that stake would be worth about $75.3 billion at the AI company's latest reported $965 billion post-money valuation. Using the common 8% shorthand, the number rises to about $77.2 billion.
That does not mean the FTX estate lost $75 billion in cash. Bankruptcy administrators had to turn illiquid assets into distributable money, and Anthropic shares are not the same as Treasury bills. The better lesson for investors is about risk and reward: one venture bet can become extraordinary, while the surrounding balance sheet can still be catastrophically broken.
Bankman-Fried's final irony is that his belief in Anthropic and advanced AI was directionally right. He backed the company partly through the effective altruism lens that treated AI safety as a major future issue, but ultimately did not have enough time to see that bet pay off.
Sam Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in prison and ordered to pay $11 billion in restitution in 2024. But he has since tried to fight the conviction. His latest attempt at freedom proved fruitless after he lost his appeal to overturn his fraud conviction on Friday, June 12, 2026. There have been rumors about a possible presidential pardon from President Donald Trump following Ross Ulbricht's release, but they have proven to be nothing more than social media chatter.