The bankrupt FTX missed nearly $5 billion in potential profit after liquidating the early stock of Anysphere behind the rapidly rising AI code editor cursor.
The now-deprecated crypto exchange invested $200,000 in Anysphere during the 2022 seed round through trading arm Alameda Research.
However, bankruptcy managers sold their shares for the same amount in 2023 long before the company’s value surged.
On April 5th, Anysphere completed its funding round, pushing its valuation to $9 billion. The round brought in $900 million and included major investors such as Thrive Capital, Andreessen Horowitz and Accel.
In January this year, the company raised $150 million at a $2.5 billion valuation. Since then, Cursor’s user base and revenue have grown rapidly, reportedly drawing around $200 million in April alone.
Based on Anysphere’s current valuation, Alameda’s original $200,000 investment is worth nearly $500 million.
That unrealized profit could have been used to compensate FTX creditors. Many are still waiting to recover lost assets.
Underrated sales of FTX
On the other hand, it is not the only instance of undervalued sales during the FTX asset liquidation process.
Due to the context, bankrupt exchange management had broken up a token agreement linked to the SUI blockchain.
Instead of holding the contract, FTX sold them in March 2024 for just $1 million. The failed exchange also sold $95 million in Mysten Labs shares along with the SUI contract.
Despite these failures, FTX real estate has seen better results elsewhere. One example was the sale of $1.4 billion of $500 million stakes held by AI corporations, resulting in significant liquidity.
The proceeds from these asset sales are used to refund creditors. The failed company completed its first repayment in February. The second round targeting customers targets bills over $50,000 and is expected to begin later this month.
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