Last week, one of the largest crypto exchanges in the world, FTX filed for bankruptcy and Bankman-Fried stepped down as CEO.  This increases the probability that investors in each entity will lose a large portion of their investment.


 But no one has lost more money from the FTX crash than Sam Bankman-Fried, the crypto prodigy who founded an exchange and went down in an instant.


 His net worth, which once stood at US$26.5 billion tumbled to less than one billion dollars, one of the fastest declines the billionaire rankings have seen.


FTX users and employees may also suffer heavy losses.  Now, Bankman-Fried is reportedly trying to raise an emergency fund to cover a shortfall of up to US$8 billion as customers ask for their money back.


 "I can't make any promises," he tweeted.  "But I will try."


FTX investor

 As crypto exchanges are on the rise, it's clearly a big draw for venture capitalists looking to get in on the Bitcoin explosion.  In June 2021, FTX raised US$1 billion at a US$18 billion valuation from venture investors such as Paradigm, SoftBank and Sequoia Capital.


Three months later, FTX brought in US$421 million, pushing its valuation to US$25 billion, from investors such as Singapore's state-owned investment firm Temasek, Tiger Global Management and the Ontario Teacher Retirement Plan.


 Then in January this year, crypto prices were on the downtrend, but FTX took off instead.  Many investors who had already poured money into the previous round, are back to putting another US$400 million into FTX—at a US$32 billion valuation.


 That US$32 billion figure has simply disappeared.  Likewise with the capital of more than US$ 1.8 billion obtained from investors to FTX for three years.


According to a Forbes report, quoted Tuesday (11/15/2022), at least two major shareholders marked their investment in FTX dropping to US$0 namely venture capital firm Sequoia and, reportedly, crypto-focused firm Paradigm.


 In a narrow sense, FTX investors' losses are limited to the US$1.8 billion or more they put into the business.  But their losses on paper are much higher.


 If any of these investors had cashed in in January, when FTX peaked at a US$32 billion valuation, they would be tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars richer.  Conversely, if they haven't they can only end up with nothing.


 The following is an estimate of the capital invested in FTX by investors:


 1.Sequola Capital


 Stake in FTX: 1.1%

 Estimated amount invested (FTX only): US$200 million

 Value at peak January 2022: US$350 million


 The value of Sequoia's investment in FTX peaked at US$350 million earlier this year, marking the biggest possible loss for outside investors on the exchange.


 Sequoia said in a letter to its investors that its FTX shares represented less than 3% of the fund's committed capital, and the fund's US$150 million losses were offset by approximately US$7.5 billion of realized and unrealized profits.



2. Temasek


 Stake in FTX: 1%

 Estimated amount invested: US$215 million

 Value in January 2022: US315 million


 A Singapore government owned investment company, Temasek is the second largest outside investor in the capitalization table, with 7 million shares.  The US$297 billion business (assets), which has major stakes in Singapore's DBS Group and Singapore Airlines, invested in all three of FTX's primary funding rounds.



3. Paradigm


 Bet on FTX: 1%

 Estimated amount invested: US$ 215 million

 Value at peak January 2022: US$315 million


 Paradigm, an investment company focused on supporting crypto/Web3 companies and future protocols.  Invests in series B and C rounds of the exchange and owns nearly 7 million shares of FTX as of August.


 "There's a bright future for Sam and FTX," Paradigm co-founder Matt Huang said in July 2021, "and Paradigm is excited to be a part of it."



4. Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan


 Stake in FTX: 0.4%

 Estimated amount invested: US$ 80 million

 Value at peak January 2022: US$125 million


 The Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan is the organization that manages the pension funds of 333,000 teachers in the Canadian province.  They invested a total of US$95 million between FTX and FTX US in late 2021 and early 2022.


 The FTX portion of that investment alone is worth around US$130 million following FTX's series C round - before the current crypto winter and crisis.


 "While there is uncertainty about the future of FTX," wrote Ontario Teachers in a statement, "Any financial loss on this investment will have a limited impact on the plan, given that this investment represents less than 0.05% of our total net assets."