FTX Ventures Acquires 30% Stake in SkyBridge Capital from Scaramucci – Reuters

Sam Bankman-Fried’s crypto venture company FTX Ventures is making moves in the market again, this time buying a 30% stake in crypto firm SkyBridge Capital.

SkyBridge Capital will use $40 million of the new funding to invest and hold cryptocurrencies on the company’s balance sheet.

Based in New York, SkyBridge Capital is an investment firm led by Anthony Scaramucci, Troy Gaveski, Brett S. Messing and Raymond Nolte. FTX Ventures is a venture capital fund launched in January 2022 and led by Amy Wu, formerly a general partner at LightSpeed ​​Venture Partners.

A SkyBridge Capital representative confirmed the deal with Decrypt by email. “Sam is a visionary who has built incredible businesses that synergize with the future of SkyBridge,” said Anthony Scaramucci, Scaramucci said in a prepared statement.

FTX Ventures has not yet responded to Decryptrequest for comment.

The latest move comes after SkyBridge suspended investor redemptions in July for one of its funds exposed to Bitcoin and Ethereum. Called Legion Strategies, the fund managed around $230 million in assets, with nearly a quarter of those funds held in crypto as of February.

“The suspension is largely driven by a liquidity mismatch resulting from late-stage private investments in the fund. SkyBridge funds are not leveraged. There is no risk of liquidation of assets,” a Skybridge representative said. Decrypt at the time.

The shutdown meant that Scaramucci’s company joined a long list of other crypto companies and projects making similar decisions amid the wider crypto rout.

And while some companies have struggled under such adverse conditions, Sam Bankman-Fried has emerged as a savior, disbursing millions to struggling companies.

FTX founder emerges as a ‘crypto saviour’

As crypto prices plummeted, Sam Bankman-Fried began providing lifelines to various crypto businesses. In total, he has distributed around $750 million in various investments to companies like BlockFi and Voyager Digital.

However, it remains unclear whether the recent investment in SkyBridge Capital was for the same reasons.

As for the title of “savior” of crypto, Bankman-Fried said he was disappointed that no one else had joined him in supporting the industry.

“I would be super happy for others to take this in my place. The reason I did it, frankly, is because it doesn’t seem clear to me that there are others stepping in. and do that.” he said on a recent episode of Decryptthe gm podcast.