Share this article
Sam Bankman-Fried Cashed Out $300M in Previous Funding Round: Report
In a previously undisclosed detail, most of the $420 million raised in October 2021 went directly to Bankman-Fried, according to the Wall Street Journal.
By Nelson Wang
Updated May 9, 2023, 4:03 a.m. Published Nov 18, 2022, 8:38 p.m.
Make us preferred on Google
Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried personally received $300 million from a $420 million funding round for the company in October 2021, according to a Wall Street Journal report that cited FTX financial records it had reviewed, as well as people familiar with the transaction.
The arrangement was previously undisclosed, with Bankman-Fried telling investors at the time it was partially to reimburse him for money he’d spent to buy out Binance’s stake in FTX a few months earlier, the Journal reported.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Don't miss another story.Subscribe to the Crypto Daybook Americas Newsletter today. See all newsletters
In July 2021, Bankman-Fried bought out the approximately 15% of FTX owned by Binance, which was FTX’s first investor. Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao tweeted this month that the amount of the buyout was $2.1 billion in Binance’s stablecoin BUSD and FTX’s exchange token FTT.
The October 2021 funding round valued FTX at $25 billion and raised money from financial heavyweights such as BlackRock, Tiger Global, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund Temasek and Sequoia Capital. A few months later, some of those same investors helped raise $400 million for FTX's U.S. subsidiary at an $8 billion valuation.
According to the Journal, it was unclear what Bankman-Fried did with the $300 million, while FTX's 2021 audited financial statements said the money was being kept by the company for "operational expediency" on behalf of a "related party."
Read more: Temasek Says Its FTX Investment Is Now Worth Zero
UPDATE (Nov. 18, 20:58 UTC): Added information about FTX US fundraise.
More For You
From FTX debris to global finance: Solana’s 2026 plan is all about the application layer
Resilience built from the debris of 2022 is now shaping the Solana ecosystems future, leaders from Jupiter, Backpack, Kamino and DoubleZero argued at Consensus Hong Kong 2026.
What to know:
- A few years after the collapse of FTX nearly took it down by association, Solana’s core builders say the network’s next phase will be defined not by survival, but by scaling into global finance.
- While Solana became known during the last cycle for memecoin mania and speculative trading, the next chapter will center on bringing more traditional finance onchain, panellists argued at Consensus Hong Kong 2026.
- Upcoming upgrades aimed at reducing latency and improving confirmation times are expected to strengthen Solana’s pitch as a high-performance, general-purpose execution layer. But the panel cautioned against complacency.
Top Stories
