FTX to increase cash reserves by more than $1 billion following court approval of Anthropic sale

FTX, a bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange, has received approval from Judge John Dorsey to sell its shares in artificial intelligence startup Anthropic. The decision was made after FTX reached an agreement with customers who had objected to the sale, claiming that the shares were purchased using misappropriated funds from customers. However, these customers agreed to the sale on the condition that they would be able to claim money from it for FTX users. FTX’s lawyer stated in court that the sale of the Anthropic shares was part of their plan to sell all assets and deposit the funds in the bank. FTX plans to use the proceeds from the sale to repay users, adding to the $6.4 billion it currently has in its bank account. The motion to sell the 7.84% stake in Anthropic was filed by FTX earlier this month. FTX had initially invested about $530 million in the AI startup before it filed for bankruptcy. The stake was diluted to 7.84% following additional funding rounds for Anthropic. The latest funding round valued Anthropic at $15 billion, increasing the worth of FTX’s stake to over $1.1 billion. FTX predicts that it will be able to fully repay its creditors and has abandoned plans to relaunch the exchange. However, the amount repaid to creditors will be based on the prices of cryptocurrencies at the time of FTX’s bankruptcy, which was over 15 months ago. Since then, the price of Bitcoin has increased over 200%. FTX’s former boss, Sam Bankman-Fried, is set to be sentenced on March 28 after being found guilty of stealing over $8 billion in customer funds. Bankman-Fried plans to appeal his sentence.