FTX can sell its Anthropic stake, judge rules

The FTX estate’s motion to sell its Anthropic stake was approved by a bankruptcy court on Thursday.

The granting of the motion, which took place after a hearing in front of Judge John Dorsey, will allow FTX to offload its 8% stake in the AI startup.

The stake, according to valuations from last year, could fetch over $1.4 billion for the bankrupt exchange. The total amount remains unclear, however, following a report from The New York Times that puts the company’s valuation at $15 billion and not the $18 billion that was reported last year.

The investment, either way, will fetch over $1 billion, making it one of the profitable ventures from FTX and will pad the cash pile of the bankrupt exchange. Former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried initially invested roughly $500 million into the start-up in 2021.

FTX sought to unload the stake in a motion filed earlier this month. The debtors argued that the ability to sell “all or portions of Anthropic Shares at different times, and by different means, will help the Debtors monetize their interest.”

In the previous filing, the debtors said that they would sell shares at “optimal” times following the AI company’s “capital raising efforts.”

In a hearing earlier this year, lawyers representing the estate said that creditors “will eventually be paid in full.” However, the estate also announced that it had scrapped reboot plans for the exchange after they were unable to secure a buyer.

“No investor is ready to commit the needed capital to a restart of the offshore exchange. Nor has a buyer emerged for that exchange,” lawyers told Judge Dorsey at the time. The estate still holds “valuable customer data,” they added.

The aforementioned recovery was not previously included in the current Chapter 11 plan.

FTX received the green light to sell its shares of Grayscale’s bitcoin ETF. So far, the estate has reportedly unloaded roughly $1 billion of GBTC.

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