A 5% stake in AI coding startup Cursor, sold by FTX's bankruptcy estate for $200,000 in April 2023, would now be worth approximately $3 billion following SpaceX's acquisition agreement at a $60 billion valuation. This development has brought attention to the significant gap between the initial sale price and the current valuation, with the estate's decision to liquidate assets being questioned.
The investment was initially made by Alameda Research, a trading firm founded by Sam Bankman-Fried, in April 2022, with the company's valuation at $4 million at the time. The subsequent sale of the stake by the FTX estate has resulted in a missed recovery of roughly $3 billion, sparking debate about the estate's handling of assets during the bankruptcy process. This incident may be cited by Sam Bankman-Fried, currently serving a 25-year federal sentence, as an example of the estate's destruction of billions in value by liquidating assets too quickly.
The FTX customers have been repaid in dollar terms, but they did not receive the upside from the assets' increased value between the bankruptcy filing and now, with the Cursor stake alone representing about $3 billion of forgone recovery.