Temasek writes off US$275 million stake in FTX as Singapore’s state investor cops fallout from crypto exchange’s blowout
- Temasek had invested US$210 million in FTX International and US$65 million in FTX US from October last year to February this year
- Both Sequoia Capital and SoftBank had earlier said they would write down their investment in the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange
Temasek, which put in US$210 million in FTX International and US$65 million in FTX US from October last year to February this year, said it decided to write down its total investment “irrespective of the outcome of FTX’s bankruptcy protection filing”.
The state-owned investment firm said that it currently has “no direct exposure in cryptocurrencies” beyond the equity in FTX. It added that the FTX investment accounted for only 0.09 per cent of Temasek’s net portfolio value of S$403 billion (US$294.1 billion) as of March 31.
The US$275 million write-down by Temasek dwarfs the US$90 million accumulated investment losses by the Singapore government at the Suzhou Industrial Park, in eastern China’s Jiangsu province, in the six years that ended in 2000.
The action taken by Temasek reflects how major investors were caught off guard by FTX’s swift downward spiral last week and how they are now moving to distance themselves from the failed crypto company.
Digital asset lender BlockFi, which received a US$250 million bailout from FTX in June, said in a statement on its website on November 15 that it “could no longer operate our business as usual”, but asserted that it was “working around the clock to evaluate all of our available options”.
Genesis Trading, another crypto lender, said that it will “suspend redemptions and new loan originations” because FTX created “unprecedented market turmoil”, which has led to “abnormal withdrawal requests” that exceeded its liquidity.