Written by: Sam, Techub News
Introduction
In the spring of 2024, FTX's bankruptcy liquidation team executed a seemingly flawless transaction at the time: selling the Anthropic shares left by Sam Bankman-Fried in two parts, recovering approximately $1.34 billion, which is 2.7 times the original $500 million investment. Buyers lined up, the judge nodded in approval, and the creditor repayment pool thickened once again.
Two and a half years later, the prospectus submitted by Anthropic to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission revised this account. At an issuing price range of $70 to $78 per share, the batch of shares sold by FTX at that time is now worth approximately $31 billion to $35 billion, 23 to 26 times the transaction price, nearly double the amount of the entire FTX bankruptcy estate's distributable assets.
Core Summary
- In March and June 2024, FTX's bankruptcy estate sold approximately 44.5 million shares of Anthropic in two transactions, totaling about $1.34 billion, at roughly $30 per share; buyers included ATIC, associated with the UAE sovereign fund Mubadala, Jane Street, and G Squared.
- The updated prospectus from Anthropic on November 10 shows that the company conducted a 1-for-10 stock split in September and plans to go public on NASDAQ with an issuing price of $70 to $78, with the ticker "ANT." Based on this, the shares sold by FTX are now valued at approximately $31 billion to $35 billion.
- At the time of FTX's liquidation, Anthropic had an annual revenue of only $386 million for 2024; by the first three quarters of 2026, revenue had reached $33.2 billion.
- FTX is not the only one who sold too early: the prospectus reveals that in October 2025, Anthropic repurchased a batch of seized Series B preferred shares from the U.S. government for about $627 million, which, based on the issuing price range, is now valued at approximately $3.1 billion to $3.5 billion.
- FTX creditors are receiving approximately 119% repayment based on the dollar value from November 2022; during the same period, Bitcoin has risen from about $17,000 to around $74,000.
The Liquidator's "Perfect Deal"
Under SBF's leadership, FTX invested $500 million in Anthropic, acquiring about 8% equity. At that time, Anthropic was still a research institution founded in 2021 by former OpenAI employees, and Claude wouldn't officially be used until the first quarter of 2023.
In November 2022, after FTX's collapse, this equity became one of the most valuable non-crypto assets in the bankruptcy estate. The bankruptcy court approved the sale in February 2024. In March, the estate reached an agreement with 24 buyers to sell about 29.5 million shares for $884 million, roughly two-thirds of the holdings. CNBC reported at the time that the largest buyer was ATIC Third International Investment, related to the UAE sovereign fund Mubadala, which bought nearly $500 million worth; the second largest buyer was Jane Street, for nearly $100 million, which is also where SBF and Caroline Ellison worked before entering the crypto industry. In June, according to bankruptcy documents cited by CCN, the remaining 15 million shares were sold at $30 per share, totaling about $452 million, with venture capital firm G Squared being one of the main buyers.
Combined, the two transactions totaled approximately $1.34 billion, yielding a 2.7 times return. In a bankruptcy case that was emptied by fraud and needed to repay millions of customers, this is already quite a respectable achievement.
The Financial Account Two and a Half Years Later
On November 10, Anthropic submitted its second version of S-1 amendment to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, stating: the company plans to issue 825 million Class A common shares, with an issuing price range of $70 to $78, and to apply for listing on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the ticker "ANT"; entities such as Google, Microsoft, NVIDIA, AMD, Broadcom, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company are also expected to subscribe to $26 billion in private placements at the issuing price. The prospectus also disclosed that the company completed a 1-for-10 stock split on September 17.
Considering the stock split, the approximately 44.5 million shares sold by FTX correspond to about 445 million shares today, equating to a transaction price of about $3 per share. At the issuing price range of $70 to $78, these shares are worth approximately $31.2 billion to $34.7 billion. The price at which FTX sold them is roughly just over one-twentieth of the current issuing price.
Looking back at FTX's own financial records: FTX's restructuring plan, released in October 2024, estimates that the total recoverable, liquidatable, and distributable assets in the estate are between $14.7 billion and $16.5 billion. This means that the value of the Anthropic shares sold back then is approximately double the total of the FTX bankruptcy estate's distributable assets today.
In terms of valuation, based on the prospectus's disclosure of approximately 13.09 billion shares of Class A and Class N common stock post-issuance, Anthropic's market capitalization at listing is estimated to be around $920 billion to $1.02 trillion; if calculated according to the fully diluted equity disclosed in the prospectus, it ranges from $12.7 trillion to $14.1 trillion, which is also the reason for the discrepancy in valuations reported by various media.
What truly throws this account out of balance is Anthropic's revenue curve. The prospectus shows that the company's revenue was $41 million in 2023, $386 million in 2024, $4.6 billion in 2025; in the first nine months of 2026, revenue reached $33.2 billion, a year-on-year growth of 1206%; as of October 31, the annualized revenue is about $81 billion. In the year 2024, when FTX's liquidation team decided to sell, Anthropic's entire annual revenue was less than a quarter of its revenue for a single quarter in the current year, which is $17 billion.
Not Just FTX Selling Early
The prospectus contains a line that is easily overlooked: in October 2025, Anthropic repurchased 4.4539 million shares of Series B convertible preferred stock from the U.S. government, which had previously been seized from former holders in a legal proceeding where Anthropic was not a party, at a repurchase price of $140.9676 per share, and simultaneously resold to nine qualified investors at the same price, totaling approximately $627 million. Multiple media outlets reported that this batch of shares is related to the FTX case.
When adjusted for the 1-for-10 split, this batch of shares corresponds to about 44.5 million common shares, valued at approximately $3.1 billion to $3.5 billion based on the issuing price range. The $627 million acquired by the U.S. government a year ago also turns out to be just a fraction.
Who Really Sold Too Early
The arguments in defense of the liquidators are quite convincing. The duty of the bankruptcy estate is to convert assets into cash as quickly as possible and return them to creditors, not to bet on an unlisted AI company on behalf of the creditors; the sale was approved by the court, and buyers competed in an open process; in 2024, no one could foresee that a company with annual revenue of $386 million would go public at a valuation exceeding a trillion dollars two years later. FTX ultimately announced that about 98% of creditors by number would receive approximately 119% repayment.
However, the "119%" itself is the root of the problem. According to the restructuring plan approved in October 2024, creditor repayments were calculated based on the dollar value from November 2022, when FTX filed for bankruptcy. On the day FTX filed for bankruptcy, Bitcoin closed at about $17,000; today it is around $74,000. A user who had one Bitcoin stored in FTX back then would receive 119% of $17,000, which is less than a third of today's price of a single Bitcoin.
Thus, this situation leads to an awkward conclusion: creditors received cash back at the price from the bottom of the collapse, while the increases in cryptocurrency and Anthropic's value fell into the pockets of holders and the buyers from 2024. The buyers associated with Mubadala, Jane Street, G Squared, and others acquired a ticket that is now worth over $30 billion for $1.3 billion.
Unfinalized Numbers
This account still has several unresolved aspects. Anthropic's issuing price has not been finalized, and the price on the first day of listing may deviate significantly from the range; the shares sold by FTX experienced multiple rounds of financing after 2024, and the final conversion into common shares will depend on the specific conversion terms of the preferred shares, which this article estimates based on the stock split ratio of 1:10. According to the lock-up arrangements disclosed in the prospectus, most existing shareholders cannot sell their shares within 180 days after the listing, while co-founders and shareholders holding over 0.5% will have a lock-up period of up to 365 days.
However, regardless of where the final price lands, the conclusion is unlikely to change: among all of SBF's troubled accounts, Anthropic was the most accurate bet he made, and none of the later gains from that bet were left for FTX's creditors.
References
1. Anthropic, PBC: Form S-1/A (Amendment No. 2, 2026-11-10, U.S. SEC EDGAR)
3. CCN: FTX Benefits From AI Surge: $452M from Anthropic Share Sale (2024-06)
5. CNN: Anthropic to seek $1.4 trillion valuation in blockbuster IPO (2026-11-10)
Editor’s Note: The terms of Anthropic's issuance, equity, stock split, revenue, and the repurchase data from October 2025 are all derived from its S-1/A submitted on November 10, 2026; the number and amount of shares sold by FTX are from bankruptcy court documents referenced by media such as CNBC; the current value of FTX's shares is estimated in this article according to the 1-for-10 stock split ratio and issuing price range, without considering the differences that may arise from the conversion terms of preferred shares, for reference only. Bitcoin prices are the closing prices on November 11, 2022, and the market on November 11, 2026.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational reporting and analysis only and does not constitute any investment advice.
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