Hong Kong investors in FTX maintain an eerie quiet one month after bankruptcy filing and as founder is arrested in Bahamas
- To date, US-based investors appear to have been hit the hardest by the implosion of FTX
- Singaporean institutions have also been hit hard, with state-owned Temasek Holdings writing down US$275 million
One month on from the collapse of former cryptocurrency exchange FTX, institutional investors in Hong Kong remain reluctant to speak out about the collateral damage of the incident as the industry reels from billions in losses across dozens of organisations.
Among the top venture capital firms that invested in the exchange – which was born in Hong Kong – and have disclosed losses, US-based investors appear to have been hit the hardest by the implosion of FTX, which until last month was the world’s second-largest crypto exchange.
Major US firms Sequoia Capital, Tiger Global, BlackRock and cryptocurrency-focused Paradigm, have collectively written down more than US$550 million of investments in FTX, making up more than half of the total venture capital losses made public to date.
On Tuesday, FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was arrested in the Bahamas after US prosecutors filed criminal charges, according to a statement from the local government. The charges include wire fraud, securities fraud and money laundering, according to a report by The New York Times.
Singaporean institutions have also been hit hard, with state-owned Temasek Holdings writing down US$275 million and Sea Capital, which participated in an FTX funding round in October last year, losing an undisclosed amount.
Other top institutions that also saw their investment in FTX wiped out include Japan’s SoftBank and Canada’s Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan.