Anthropic shares once held by FTX would now be worth about $27.44 billion based on the $350 billion valuation cited in the source material. That figure adds a sharp twist to Binance’s decision in November 2022 to walk away from acquiring FTX: the failed rescue would have included one of the most valuable AI-related holdings tied to a crypto firm.
On November 9, 2022, FTX’s liquidity crisis was spiraling. The exchange had already halted withdrawals the previous day, and both Sam Bankman-Fried and Changpeng Zhao said FTX and Binance had reached a preliminary strategic agreement, subject to due diligence. Binance said it planned a full acquisition of FTX in an effort to address the exchange’s liquidity shortfall.
The agreement collapsed almost immediately. One day later, Binance said it would not proceed, citing issues that were beyond its control. FTX then unraveled. At the time, attention was fixed on customer withdrawals, balance-sheet damage, and contagion across the crypto market. FTX’s AI investment sat in the background. It was not the headline then.
FTX’s early bet on Anthropic
According to the source, FTX announced in April 2022 that it had made a major investment in Anthropic, though the transaction itself had been completed in 2021. FTX invested $500 million as the lead participant in a $580 million round, at one point holding 13.56% of the company. Later fundraising rounds diluted that stake to 7.84%.
This happened before the AI trade fully exploded. ChatGPT launched in late November 2022, the same month FTX collapsed, and Anthropic later became one of the most closely watched AI companies through its Claude product line. The source says Anthropic is in the final stage of a new fundraising round expected to exceed $20 billion, with a valuation that could reach $350 billion. Using that figure, FTX’s former stake would be worth roughly $27.44 billion.
Bankruptcy sales closed long before the latest valuation talk
Those shares were not held all the way through. After FTX entered bankruptcy, its assets, including the Anthropic position, were handled by the bankruptcy estate. In February 2024, a court approved the sale of the stake. In March and June 2024, the estate sold 29.5 million shares and 15 million shares for $884 million and $450 million, bringing total proceeds to more than $1.3 billion.
The buyers named in the source included Abu Dhabi-based ATIC Third International Investment, along with Jane Street and Fidelity. The result is straightforward: a crypto-linked stake in one of AI’s most prominent companies ended up moving into the hands of traditional financial investors rather than staying with a crypto-native firm.
A failed crypto rescue with an AI shadow attached
The source frames the episode as more than a missed M&A attempt. Binance’s withdrawal kept it from taking on a collapsing rival, but it also left behind an asset that later appreciated far beyond what most people were discussing in those days. Set against CZ’s well-known 2014 decision to sell his Shanghai apartment and buy roughly 1,500 BTC at a three-digit price, the contrast is hard to ignore.
One decision helped Binance avoid a crisis that was already out of control. The other side of that same decision is that a massive AI upside remained outside its reach. The acquisition never happened, FTX’s assets were liquidated, and the Anthropic stake became one of the clearest examples of how value can hide inside a failed crypto empire.