Sam Bankman-Fried Cashed Out $300M in Earlier Funding Spherical: WSJ

Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried personally obtained $300 million from a $420 million funding spherical for the corporate in October 2021, in accordance with a Wall Avenue Journal report that cited FTX monetary information it had reviewed, in addition to individuals acquainted with the transaction.

The association was beforehand undisclosed, with Bankman-Fried telling traders on the time it was partially to reimburse him for cash he’d spent to purchase out Binance’s stake in FTX a couple of months earlier, the Journal reported.

In July 2021, Bankman-Fried purchased out the roughly 15% of FTX owned by Binance, which was FTX’s first investor. Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao tweeted this month that the quantity of the buyout was $2.1 billion in Binance’s stablecoin BUSD and FTX’s alternate token FTT.

The October 2021 funding spherical valued FTX at $25 billion and raised cash from monetary heavyweights reminiscent of BlackRock, Tiger World, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund Temasek and Sequoia Capital. A couple of months later, a few of those self same traders helped increase $400 million for FTX’s U.S. subsidiary at an $8 billion valuation.

In keeping with the Journal, it was unclear what Bankman-Fried did with the $300 million, whereas FTX’s 2021 audited monetary statements mentioned the cash was being saved by the corporate for “operational expediency” on behalf of a “associated social gathering.”

Learn extra: Temasek Says Its FTX Funding Is Now Price Zero

UPDATE (Nov. 18, 20:58 UTC): Added details about FTX US fundraise.