The fallout from crypto-exchange FTX’s stunning collapse last year is still being felt, not least through founder Sam Bankman-Fried’s ongoing criminal trial and unwinding where $8 billion of consumer funds were spent.
Some $243 million of the $7.7 billion FTX executives spent and is unaccounted for — which is at the heart of the trial — went toward Bahamian real estate, the Wall Street Journal reported.
FTX famously moved its headquarters to the Bahamas from Hong Kong due to favorable crypto laws.
FTX’s most expensive acquisition was a $30 million penthouse in the Albany, a luxury resort community on the island of New Providence, according to the publication. Records show the president of FTX Property, Ryan Salame, signed the deed in March, indicating it was a residence for “key personnel.”
A $39.5 million listing for a penthouse in the Albany, identified as the home of Bankman-Fried called “the Orchid,” turned out to be farce earlier this week.
FTX Holdings paid almost $72 million for a total of seven units in the Albany, according to records.
Other luxury properties acquired by FTX, with the signatures of Bankman-Fried, former head engineering Nishad Singh, and co-founder Gary Wang, were a trio of condos at One Cable Beach. The units ranged in price from $950,000 to $2 million, according to the outlet.
Bankman-Fried’s parents were the signatories for one home in the gated community Old Fort Bay.
While the $243 million is a significant sum, it pales in comparison to the $5 billion that FTX invested in tech companies, the Journal reported. Many of those bets did not pay off. There’s also the $2.2 billion that FTX paid insiders that likely were consumer funds as well, the outlet said.
And FTX wasn’t shy about splashing cash on politicians, to the tune of $80 million.
Regardless, collapse of FTX decimated the real estate buyer pool of crypto investors. Brokers say cash-poor buyers with funds tied up in the digital currency will struggle to execute contracts, or downsize the real estate purchases they were looking to make.
— Ted Glanzer