The bankruptcy estate of FTX sold a 5% stake in AI coding startup Cursor for $200,000 in April 2023, a stake that would now be worth approximately $3 billion following SpaceX's recent agreement to acquire the company at a $60 billion valuation. This development has brought attention to one of the largest missed recoveries in crypto history, with the estate's sale of the stake being a routine bankruptcy asset sale that has since become a significant missed opportunity. The deal is part of Elon Musk's efforts to close the gap with competitors in the AI coding tools space. The crypto angle comes into play as Alameda Research, founded by Sam Bankman-Fried, had invested $200,000 in Anysphere, the company behind Cursor, in April 2022, buying 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, missing out on a potential 15,000x return. This has led to arguments from Bankman-Fried that the estate destroyed billions in value by liquidating assets too quickly, and the timing of the SpaceX deal has awkward implications for FTX's bankruptcy administration.
The case highlights the potential upside that FTX customers missed out on, with the Cursor stake alone representing about $3 billion in forgone recovery.