The investment arm of Sam Bankman-Fried’s cryptocurrency exchange FTX reportedly absorbed Alameda Research’s venture capital operations in response to the ongoing cryptocurrency bear market.
According to a Bloomberg report on Thursday, Caroline Ellison of Alameda said in an interview that the merger had occurred before former co-CEO Sam Trabucco announced his resignation on Wednesday, leaving Ellison as the firm’s sole CEO.. The exchange’s investment arm, FTX Ventures, launched in January — when the Alameda takeover reportedly began — with $2 billion in assets under management.
BREAKING: Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX and Alameda merged their VC operations as the billionaire copes with a prolonged crypto winter https://t.co/5bXiTHphzs pic.twitter.com/EYUSa2bItG
—Bloomberg Crypto (@crypto) August 25, 2022
Amy Wu, who runs the venture capital fund, said no payments were made as part of the deal, and that Alameda’s investment arm was entirely under the FTX Ventures name, with the two operating independently of each other and the cryptocurrency exchange. According to Wu, the two companies were still operating “at a distance” with the Alameda team not “working too much on the day-to-day business side.”
In July, Voyager Digital rejected a joint offer from FTX and Alameda to purchase its crypto assets and outstanding loans as part of its bankruptcy proceedings. The firm’s legal team said at the time that the proposed acquisition could “hurt clients.” Alameda has made offers of its own, including endorsement of cryptocurrency custody firm; AnchorageDigital.
Ellison reportedly said that Alameda would consider continuing to offer bailouts to cash-strapped crypto firms amid the current bear market. He added that “The more systemically important someone is, the more important it would be to try to support them.”
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