By
Mayowa Adebajo
April 11th, 2024
FTX Ventures & SkyBridge Capital are collaborating once again to “complement both [their] businesses” on the crypto front.
FTX Ventures, the FTX investment arm, is taking a 30% stake in SkyBridge Capital. According to CNBC’s Squawk Box, SkyBridge Capital will channel a portion of FTX Venture’s funds towards deploying $40 million in crypto investments. This sizable investment would be held on the Anthony Scaramucci-founded company’s balance sheet.
According to news provided by SkyBridge, the deal represents the latest collaboration between the investment firm and FTX. It follows a multi-year partnership between the duo to sponsor global SALT conferences in various regions. Both SkyBridge and FTX Ventures agreed to co-present the leading crypto conference Crypto Bahamas even before the new investment.
Founders Weigh in On FTX Ventures & SkyBridge Capital Initiative
Speaking on the collaboration with FTX, Scaramucci extolled the antecedents of the Bahamian-based crypto exchange’s founder Sam Bankman-Fried. According to him, “Sam is a visionary who has built incredible businesses that are synergistic with the future of SkyBridge. Our business has continued to evolve since we founded the firm in 2005. We will remain a diversified asset management firm, while investing heavily in blockchain.”
Bankman-Fried is also enthused about the prospect of closely working with SkyBridge again on a set of similar objectives. As he put it:
“After working with Anthony and his team following our SALT conference partnership, we saw there was an opportunity to work closer together in ways that could complement both our businesses.”
Furthermore, the 30-year-old American entrepreneur, billionaire, and investor added:
“We look forward to collaborating closely with SkyBridge on its crypto investment activity and also working alongside them on promising non-crypto-related investments.”
The financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed.
Other Related FTX & SkyBridge News
Although SkyBridge has a history of focusing on traditional hedge funds, the investment firm turned to crypto amid the last bull run. Subsequently, reports surfaced in July that SkyBridge was readying a specialized Web3-focused fund for investments in late-stage crypto companies. Furthermore, the same reports gave a September 12th due date for an official announcement on the projected SkyBridge fund.
SkyBridge also launched a new investment fund back in April to invest in Bitcoin (BTC) mining. To this, the New York City-based investment company generated around $7 million, according to regulatory filings. Referred to as SkyBridge BTC Mining L.P., the new BTC-mining investment vehicle was created for SkyBridge selected limited partners to co-invest in Genesis Digital Assets.
Meanwhile, FTX has been on a buying and investing spree within the last few months. Amid the recent downturn of the crypto market, the prominent exchange has offered to acquire portions of several embattled crypto firms. These troubled companies include crypto lenders BlockFi, and Voyager Digital.
Bankman-Fried’s offer to bail out some of these companies in crisis reportedly underscores his commitment to a flourishing crypto economy. In fact, the FTX founder previously suggested that it is worth risking his funds to keep the crypto space afloat.