(Reuters) – FTX Ventures plans to scoop up a 30% stake in SkyBridge Capital, the companies said, making it the latest in a flurry of deals by cryptocurrency’s white knight Sam Bankman-Fried.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed by the companies.
SkyBridge, the alternative investment firm led by Anthony Scaramucci, will use a portion of the proceeds from the deal to deploy $40 million in cryptocurrency investments to hold on its balance sheet as a long-term investment, according to a joint statement by the companies.
“We will remain a diversified asset management firm, while
investing heavily in blockchain,” Scaramucci said.
The news was first reported by CNBC earlier in the day.
The cryptocurrency sector found a savior in Bankman-Fried, 30, who threw several lifelines to digital asset platforms as cryptocurrencies prices cratered.
The head of one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges had said in July that he and his company still have a “few billion” on hand to shore up struggling firms that could further destabilize the digital asset industry.
His crypto trading arm, Alameda Research, provided $200 million cash and stablecoin revolving credit facility, and a facility of bitcoin to Voyager Digital before it went bankrupt, while FTX handed another $400 million revolving credit facility to BlockFi with an option to buy it for up to $240 million.
In January, FTX unveiled FTX Ventures, a $2 billion venture capital fund focused on digital asset investments, which it has since drawn on to help bail out firms that are lacking liquidity, but not assets.
(Reporting by Mehnaz Yasmin in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)
