FTX's $1.3B Anthropic Sale Looms Large Ahead of IPO
FxRoy
•
October 27, 2026
•
6 views
FTX sold its Anthropic position for $1.3 billion during bankruptcy. An undiluted calculation now values that same slice above $100 billion.
The Number That Got Away
Anthropic filed its IPO papers on Oct. 26. That filing pulled the old trade back into view. Creditors who took the $1.3 billion exit price are left watching a valuation that has ballooned in the AI rush.
Early venture rounds in 2021 and 2022 gave FTX roughly a 7% holding. The firm needed cash fast once the exchange collapsed. Selling into a secondary deal looked like the only practical move at the time.
How the Sale Unfolded
Bankruptcy advisers ran the numbers under pressure. They accepted the bid rather than hold through more volatility. That's the choice that now draws fresh scrutiny.
Other crypto estates have faced similar hindsight questions. Mt. Gox creditors still argue over timing of bitcoin sales years later. The pattern repeats whenever an asset rebounds hard after forced liquidation.
AI Valuations Keep Climbing
Anthropic's trajectory mirrors the broader surge in frontier model companies. Funding rounds since the FTX exit have pushed its paper value into the tens of billions. The IPO filing simply makes the gap public.
Markets have rewarded the sector despite uneven earnings. Investors price in long-term platform dominance rather than near-term profit. That mindset turned an early venture bet into an outsized winner for anyone who kept the shares.
Creditor Questions That Remain
Bankruptcy judges have already approved most of the original sale. Reopening the transaction looks unlikely. Still, the optics sting for anyone who took a haircut on the estate.
Some creditors have floated whether advisers missed signals on Anthropic's trajectory. Others accept that distressed sales rarely capture full upside. The debate stays mostly academic now.
Watch position sizing if you're trading AI-related names into the IPO window. These moves have caught leveraged accounts off guard before. No guarantee the premium holds once trading starts.