By
Chimamanda U. Martha
April 19th, 2024
BlackRock is definitely not the last company to talk about the impact of the FTX collapse.
Investment management company BlackRock (NYSE: BLK) CEO Larry Fink has revealed that the company is also one of the many affected by the FTX incident. According to Fink, BlackRock invested $24 million in the crypto exchange before its crash. It is no longer news that FTX has totally crumbled and is now under investigation by financial watchdogs. The crypto company’s collapse also affected many- including individual and institutional investors.
The BlackRock CEO spoke about its relationship with FTX before the unfortunate incident while speaking at the New York Times Dealbook conference. Fink said there were appearances of FTX misbehaving at the time. However, he did not specify if the company and VC firm Sequoia were victims of FTX misleading. The venture capital company announced last month that its FTX investment is now worth zero. The company wrote that it invested $150 million into FTX.com and FTX.US through its Global Growth III fund. Separately, there is another $63.5 million in the exchange and its US division via its SCGE Fund. Counting its loss with FTX, Sequoia stated:
“We are in the business of taking risks. Some investments will surprise to the upside, and some will surprise to the downside. We do not take this responsibility lightly and do extensive research and thorough diligence on every investment we make.”
FTX is currently in disarray. For a company that was running smoothly at the beginning of the year, the crypto exchange is facing unimaginable challenges. A filing revealed that FTX might have more than 1 million creditors. The filing stated:
“As set forth in the Debtor’s petitions, there are over one hundred thousand creditors in these Chapter 11 Cases. In fact, there could be more than one million creditors in these Chapter 11 Cases. As such the Debtors submit that cause exists to modify requirements such that the Debtors will file a consolidated list of their top 50 creditors.”
Furthermore, the filing revealed that the largest single claim out of these estimated 1 million creditors is for $226 million. Following is a $203 million claim. While there is no disclosure of the identities of the creditors, FTX collectively owes all of them $3.1 billion.
As it is, BlackRock is not going to be the last company to talk about the impact of the FTX collapse. As the situation unravels, there are more revelations about FTX’s operations and investments. Different companies have also been coming forward on being victims of the crash as the day goes by. Not long ago, BlockFi filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy due to its financial ties with embattled FTX.