FTX Ventures plans to take 30% stake in Scaramucci’s SkyBridge Capital
2022.09.10 03:51
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FILE PHOTO: Anthony Scaramucci, Founder & Managing Partner of SkyBridge Capital, holds a gold bar while hosting the Skybridge Capital SALT New York 2021 conference in New York City, U.S., September 14, 2021. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
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By Mehnaz Yasmin
(Reuters) – FTX Ventures plans to scoop up a 30% stake in SkyBridge Capital, the companies said, making it the latest in a flurry of deals by cryptocurrency’s white knight Sam Bankman-Fried.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed by the companies.
SkyBridge, the alternative investment firm led by Anthony Scaramucci, will use a portion of the proceeds from the deal to deploy $40 million in cryptocurrency investments to hold on its balance sheet as a long-term investment, according to a joint statement by the companies.
The news was first reported by CNBC earlier in the day.
“I don’t think that Sam Bankman-Fried’s recent movement is an altruistic gesture,” said Richard Gardner, chief executive officer of Modulus Global, a software provider to big-ticket Wall Street clients.
“Some investors may see this as a turnaround for the industry, but I think it is more of a life jacket than a lifeboat.”
The cryptocurrency sector found a savior in Bankman-Fried, 30, who threw several lifelines to digital asset platforms as cryptocurrency prices cratered this year.
The head of one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges had said in July that he and his company still have a “few billion” on hand to shore up struggling firms that could further destabilize the digital asset industry.
His crypto trading arm, Alameda Research, provided $200 million in cash, a stablecoin revolving credit facility and a facility of bitcoin to Voyager Digital before it went bankrupt, while FTX had handed another $400 million revolving credit facility to BlockFi with an option to buy it for up to $240 million.
In January, FTX unveiled FTX Ventures, a $2 billion venture capital fund focused on digital asset investments, which it has since drawn on to help bail out firms that are lacking liquidity, but not assets.
(This story corrects last name to “Gardner”, not “Garner” in paragraph 5)
