Between 2023 and 2025, FTX's bankruptcy administrators conducted multiple forced liquidations of assets. From the current perspective, these transactions resulted in billions of dollars in unrealized appreciation being forfeited.
A detailed reconstruction of FTX's pre-bankruptcy portfolio reveals that if all positions had been held, its value could have grown from approximately $4.7 billion to an estimated $52.5 billion, representing a theoretical appreciation of $47.8 billion.
Equity Sale in Anthropic
In 2021, FTX invested $500 million in artificial intelligence company Anthropic, acquiring an 8% stake. As the bankruptcy proceedings progressed, administrators sold this stake in 2024 for $1.3 billion.
Based on Anthropic's current market valuation of $380 billion, the 8% equity would be worth approximately $30.4 billion today. The funds actually recovered represent less than 5% of the position's ultimate market value.
While this sale expedited distributions to creditors, it resulted in a loss of potential appreciation exceeding $29 billion compared to current valuations.
Early Exits from Solana and Robinhood Positions
FTX and its affiliated trading entity, Alameda Research, controlled approximately 58 million SOL tokens. The bankruptcy trustees liquidated 25 million to 30 million locked tokens in 2024 at $64 per token, yielding roughly $1.9 billion. Solana is currently trading above $130.
Buyers included Galaxy Trading and Pantera Capital. At the time, SOL was already trading near $174, meaning the buyers immediately captured appreciation that should have benefited FTX creditors.
Other Portfolio Components: SpaceX, Bitcoin Mining, and Sui
Alameda also invested $1.15 billion in Bitcoin mining firm Genesis Digital Assets between 2021 and 2022. Genesis Digital currently has an enterprise value of approximately $3.5 billion, representing a theoretical return of about 3x.
FTX Ventures also led a $300 million Series B funding round for Mysten Labs, the developer of the Sui blockchain, but the bankruptcy team sold this position for less than $100 million. The position would have been worth approximately $1.2 billion when SUI prices exceeded $5 in early 2025.
According to FTX CEO John Ray, the total recovery by the bankruptcy team is approximately $18 billion, leading to creditor compensation between 118% and 143% of the claim value as of the filing date.