A US court has authorized bankrupt exchange FTX, founded in 2019 by Sam Bankman-Fried, to sell more than $1 billion worth of shares it owns in artificial intelligence startup Anthropic.
On Feb. 22, during a hearing on FTX's motion to sell its stake in Anthropic, Delaware bankruptcy judge John Dorsey decided to grant the exchange's request because the company had made concessions to some clients who objected to the sale.
FTX clients' objection to the sale of Anthropic shares was based on the fact that the shares were purchased by the exchange with misappropriated user funds, Cointelegraph reported.
However, the exchange was able to resolve these objections by disclosing the purpose of this sale.
FTX attorney Andrew Dietderich of Sullivan & Cromwell said during the case that the money from the Anthropic stock sale would be added to the 6.4 billion FTX has in the bank to pay creditors.
Anthropic was valued at $15 billion in its most recent valuation round, bringing the value of FTX's 7.84% stake to more than $1.1 billion. Former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried began investing in the startup in 2021.
Ditderich previously reported that FTX is looking to pay off its creditors in full and intends to abandon plans to reload the exchange.
It's worth noting that payments to creditors will be based on the price of the cryptocurrency at the time of FTX's bankruptcy, when the price of Bitcoin was below $17,000 and now exceeds $51,000.
On March 28, Bankman-Fried is expected to be sentenced after being found guilty of stealing more than $8 billion in user funds.
In January 2024, FTX sold about $1 billion worth of spot Bitcoin ETF shares to Grayscale Investments after a court ruled in November 2023 that the exchange could begin liquidating assets held in trusts.
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