This year has seen more than its fair share of unexpected market collapses due to surprising news about poorly run cryptocurrency businesses.
This week brings yet another massive change. This time its FTX, the fourth-largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world, which until last week was regarded as a ‘mainstay’ of the sector.
FTX attempted to sell a sizable portion of its running business to rival Binance in a quick chain of events that mostly played out on Twitter after a rush of withdrawals threatened to bring FTX down. But as soon as Binance announced its rescue plan—an acquisition—the business laid off employees.
Among those affected by FTX’s drop are the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board and BlackRock, the largest asset manager in the world. Both took part in FTX’s Series B-1 investment round.
The Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board and BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, have seen significant drops in their investment portfolios due to the collapse of FTX. Today, the stock price of BlackRock is down 2.43%. Although the FTX tragedy is unlikely to impact it significantly, it is nonetheless a notable victim. Tiger Global, Sequoia Capital, and Temasek are a few other significant investors.
Taking part in a Series B-1 investment round in October 2021 is the third-largest pension fund in Canada, the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board. The market stayed with FTX even during periods of extreme volatility. The amount that the OTPP invested in FTX has yet to be made public.
Private investors in FTX have all suffered considerably, although there haven’t been many public comments from them yet. Even NFL star Tom Brady and his ex-wife model Gisele Bündchen, angel investors, suffered losses.
For FTX, the decline has been rather steep, which is concerning for novice cryptocurrency investors. With everyone still reeling from the collapse of the Terra ecosystem, 2022 has been a difficult year for cryptocurrencies.
Can FTX Be Saved?
Sequoia is one of the private investors who has provided a comment or update in the wake of FTX’s demise. The venture capital firm has written off all of its FTX investments. It claimed that the funds that FTX was managing suffered only minor harm and that profits of $7.5 billion in realized and unrealized capital compensated a loss of $150 million.
FTX was scheduled to be acquired by Binance, but Binance withdrew owing to mishandled cash and investigations. Meanwhile, FTX claims that if it is not saved, it will incur severe losses and go out of business. The gap might be as much as $8 billion.
