The recent agreement between SpaceX and Cursor has shed light on a substantial missed recovery for FTX's estate. In April 2023, the estate sold its 5% stake in Cursor for $200,000, a stake that would now be worth approximately $3 billion following SpaceX's $60 billion acquisition. This significant disparity has sparked discussions about the timing and handling of FTX's bankruptcy assets.
Elon Musk's SpaceX has agreed to acquire Cursor at a $60 billion valuation, with the option to buy the company later this year or pay $10 billion if the acquisition does not proceed. The deal aims to close the gap with competitors in the AI coding tools sector.
The crypto aspect of this deal lies in Alameda Research's $200,000 investment in Anysphere, the company behind Cursor, in April 2022. This investment granted Alameda a 5% stake in the company at a $4 million valuation.
However, after FTX's collapse, the court-appointed estate sold the Cursor stake for the same $200,000, resulting in a substantial missed opportunity for the estate's creditors. The gap between the sale price and the current valuation represents a 15,000x return, which was realized by the buyer rather than the creditors. This incident has raised questions about the handling of FTX's assets during the bankruptcy process.
Sam Bankman-Fried, currently serving a 25-year sentence, has argued that the estate's rapid liquidation of assets destroyed billions in value and that customers could have been made whole if the process had been handled differently. The Cursor stake's valuation has increased significantly since its launch in early 2023, making it one of the steepest trajectories in software startup history.
While FTX customers have been repaid in dollar terms, they did not receive the upside from the assets' increased value, including the $3 billion forgone recovery from the Cursor stake.