Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried misplaced his complete $16 billion fortune in only a few days after his firm filed chapter 11 chapter safety on Friday, however he’s not the one high-profile investor who might lose cash amid FTX’s downturn.
As curiosity in crypto and crypto exchanges exploded lately, extra excessive profile people like skilled athletes and different leisure personalities joined monetary establishments in investing in FTX.
A type of athletes is Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady.
Only a few months after successful his seventh Tremendous Bowl in 2021, Brady and his then-wife Gisele Bündchen had been every given fairness stake in FTX, along with receiving some crypto. Brady served as an envoy for the corporate and Bündchen was FTX’s Environmental & Social Initiatives Advisor. The 2 additionally starred in a number of TV commercials for FTX.
“It’s an extremely thrilling time within the crypto-world and Sam and the revolutionary FTX workforce proceed to open my eyes to the limitless potentialities,” Brady stated in 2021. “This explicit alternative confirmed us the significance of training individuals in regards to the energy of crypto whereas concurrently giving again to our communities and planet. Now we have the possibility to create one thing actually particular right here, and I can’t wait to see what we’re in a position to do collectively.”
It’s not clear how a lot fairness Brady and Bündchen acquired in 2021, however FTX raised capital at a $32 billion valuation just a few months after the announcement of the deal.
See additionally: FTX filed for Chapter 11 chapter. Right here’s what account holders ought to learn about this ‘very messy and sophisticated chapter case’
An analogous story may be instructed for Steph Curry of the NBA champion Golden State Warriors, who was made a worldwide ambassador for FTX and likewise given an fairness stake within the firm in 2021.
It’s unclear what is going to occur to the cash buyers put into in FTX, however their fairness could possibly be worn out by the chapter submitting.
Representatives for Curry, Brady, Bündchen and FTX didn’t reply to MarketWatch’s request for touch upon this story.
Different high-profile buyers in FTX had been Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence, MLB’s Shohei Ohtani, tennis star Naomi Osaka and Sharktank’s Kevin O’Leary.
Moreover, Main League Baseball has a advertising and marketing cope with FTX the place umpires the place an FTX brand on their shirts throughout video games, and the NBA’s Miami Warmth renamed their residence stadium “FTX Area” again in 2021. In contrast to bulletins for the athletes listed above, the press releases for the MLB and Warmth didn’t embody point out of an fairness stake in FTX.
Based on an inventory compiled by the New York Instances, monetary teams that backed FTX embody: Third Level Ventures, Tiger International, Sequoia Capital, SoftBank
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and BlackRock
BLK,
FTX paused withdrawals earlier this week amid a multibillion liquidity crunch. At one level, rival crypto trade Binance was concerned about a takeover of FTX, however determined towards the transfer and referred to as FTX’s monetary issues “past our management or capacity to assist.”
See additionally: You’ll want to perceive the FTX debacle even you probably have no investments in crypto
“There’s movie star CEOs on this area in addition to movie star crypto entrepreneurs,” SEC chairman Gary Gensler stated on CNBC this week after information broke of FTX’s liquidity points however previous to the chapter announcement. “The general public can fall prey to their promotions, their advertising and marketing and the like.”
In a viral Twitter thread on Friday, Bankman-Fried apologized for FTX’s current state of affairs. “I’m actually sorry, once more, that we ended up right here,” he stated. “Hopefully issues can discover a method to get well.”
Bitcoin
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costs briefly dropped to their lowest degree in two years this week, and the value for ether
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is down 73.22% over the past 12 months.