FTX’s attempt to fill a $2 billion gap in its balance sheet has hit a snag as the sale of its $500 million stake in Anthropic, an artificial intelligence startup, has been temporarily halted.
According to Bloomberg’s sources on June 27, Parella Weinberg Partners, FTX’s advisory investment bank, decided to pause the sale despite the interest shown by multiple parties.
The sale of FTX’s stake in Anthropic would have been a significant step towards recovering funds for the bankrupt crypto exchange.
FTX’s restructuring chief, John Ray, stated in a report on June 26 that around $8.7 billion in user funds were misused, but they have managed to recover approximately $7 billion of that amount.
Before the sale was paused, several potential buyers had expressed interest in acquiring FTX’s stake in Anthropic. In early June, Semafor reported that FTX was actively promoting the AI firm to potential investors.
FTX had initially acquired $500 million worth of Anthropic stock prior to its bankruptcy in November, and with the current boom in the AI industry, the stake is expected to have significantly increased in value.
Anthropic itself has experienced substantial growth recently. In its most recent funding round, the company achieved a reported valuation of $4.6 billion and secured $450 million in investments.
Anthropic’s main product, an AI chatbot named “Claude,” has versatile applications in sales, customer service, and web searches.
The news of the sale pause comes shortly after Ray’s report revealed that FTX still had $2 billion to recover in assets.
The report highlighted the alleged misuse of customer funds, including thousands of dollars in grants for non-crypto-related projects, investments in venture capital firms.
A $243 million real estate portfolio in the Bahamas, and donations to non-profit organizations and a political action committee operated by Gabe Bankman-Fried, the younger brother of FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried.
Cointelegraph reached out to Parella Weinberg Partners and Anthropic for comment but has not received an immediate response.
The delay in selling FTX’s stake in Anthropic adds another hurdle to the crypto exchange’s efforts to address its financial shortfall and rebuild its balance sheet.
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