In April 2023, FTX's bankruptcy estate sold a 5% stake in AI coding startup Cursor for $200,000, a move that has become one of the largest missed recoveries in crypto history. Following SpaceX's agreement to acquire Cursor at a $60 billion valuation, that same stake would now be worth approximately $3 billion.
This significant increase in value has brought attention to the crypto angle of the deal, which involves Alameda Research, a trading firm founded by Sam Bankman-Fried. Alameda had initially invested $200,000 in Anysphere, the company behind Cursor, in April 2022, purchasing roughly 5% of the company at a $4 million valuation.
After FTX's collapse, the court-appointed estate sold the stake for the same $200,000, resulting in a substantial loss of potential recovery for creditors. The timing of this sale has sparked controversy, particularly given Bankman-Fried's arguments that the estate destroyed billions in value by liquidating assets too quickly. The Cursor stake's trajectory, which has seen its value increase by around 15,000% since the sale, is likely to feature in ongoing discussions about the case and its impact on FTX customers, who have since been repaid in dollar terms but did not receive the upside from the assets' increased value.