A 5% stake in AI coding startup Cursor, sold by FTX's estate for $200,000 in April 2023, would be valued at approximately $3 billion today following SpaceX's acquisition agreement at a $60 billion valuation. This development underscores a substantial missed recovery in crypto history. SpaceX has announced its intention to acquire Cursor, with the option to purchase the company for $60 billion or pay $10 billion if the full acquisition does not proceed. The deal is part of Elon Musk's strategy to bridge the gap with competitors in AI coding tools.
The crypto connection lies in Alameda Research's $200,000 investment in Anysphere, the company behind Cursor, in April 2022. This investment, which bought roughly 5% of the company at a $4 million valuation, was sold by the FTX estate for the same amount in 2023. The significant discrepancy between the sale price and the current valuation of $3 billion, representing a 15,000x return, highlights the potential value that could have been realized by FTX's creditors. This situation has sparked debate, particularly given Sam Bankman-Fried's arguments that the FTX estate's rapid liquidation of assets during bankruptcy destroyed billions in value.
Bankman-Fried has suggested that FTX's net asset value could have reached $78 billion if the estate had held assets instead of selling them during the crypto price downturn. The trajectory of Cursor's valuation, from its AI coding product launch in 2023 to its current valuation, is among the steepest in software startup history.
While FTX customers have been repaid in full under the bankruptcy distribution plan, they did not receive the upside from the assets' subsequent appreciation, including the $3 billion forgone recovery from the Cursor stake.