Nansen CEO: CZ could have owned SBF's $100B portfolio if not for 'rare miss' 2 mins read 5 minutes ago Changpeng Zhao at Media Village during day one of Web Summit 2022 at the Altice Arena in Lisbon, Portugal. Photo Web Summit via Flickr. * CZ could have acquired SBF's venture portfolio, now estimated at $100 billion, if Binance had completed its FTX acquisition in November 2022. * The portfolio includes stakes in Anthropic, Cursor, and SpaceX that surged in value during the AI boom. * Zhao walked away from the deal within 72 hours, citing mishandled customer funds. Nansen's CEO, Alex Svanevik, has pointed out that Binance founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ) would have become one of the most valuable venture portfolios in tech history by now if his company had completed the acquisition of FTX in November 2022. A Forbes analysis released back in May showed that Sam Bankman-Fried's personal and FTX-linked investments, including an 8% stake in Anthropic, 5% of Cursor, and exposure to SpaceX, would today be worth north of $100 billion. What exactly did CZ walk away from? Prior to the FTX collapse, the portfolio Bankman-Fried built was surprisingly good. According to Forbes and other reports, it included an 8% stake in Anthropic, a 5% stake in Cursor, exposure to SpaceX, and other holdings like Robinhood and Solana. In November 2022, Binance walked away from an acquisition deal with the company, and shortly after, the exchange collapsed. If Binance had completed its FTX purchase, those investments would have moved to Binance's balance sheet. But instead, they ended up in bankruptcy court, where the FTX estate sold them off to pay back creditors. The Cursor stake was sold back to the founders for just $200,000 in 2023, but after SpaceX bought Cursor at a $60 billion valuation, that stake would now be worth about $3 billion. FTX invested about $500 million in Anthropic. Today, the AI company's valuation has soared past $600 billion, and some estimates put it near $900 billion. That single stake could be worth over $70 billion today. Bankman-Fried had accumulated about $60 million in SOL when it was around $8, with a peak value of around $21 billion. Nansen CEO Alex Svanevik posted the portfolio breakdown to X on June 19, calling the decision "a rare miss by CZ in hindsight." Rory O'Driscoll, a partner at Scale Venture Partners, said Bankman-Fried had an incredible ability to pick winning companies before the AI boom. Why did CZ walk away from the acquisition deal with FTX? Zhao's memoir, "Freedom of Money," published in April 2026, explains that Bankman-Fried called him in November 2022 and asked for billions of dollars "nonchalantly, as if he were asking for a bologna sandwich." Zhao said he signed a non-binding letter of intent (LOI) but never planned to actually go through with the deal because he had no interest in owning FTX, or in helping SBF. He said the LOI was "purely a formality" so his team could look at FTX's numbers and see if they could help protect customers. The deal fell apart within 72 hours, and Binance publicly withdrew from the acquisition on November 9, 2022, citing "mishandled customer funds and alleged U.S. agency investigations." Zhao also wrote that when Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison publicly offered to buy back Binance's FTT token holdings at $22 each, she made a "fatal error." By showing the market where the price floor was, professional traders started shorting the token and drove it below that level. FTT fell from $22 to $5 in three days, and about $6 billion in withdrawals drained from FTX. Zhao mentioned in a February 2026 appearance on the All-In Podcast that Bankman-Fried had been lobbying against Binance in Washington, D.C. Despite this, he maintains that his decision to sell Binance's FTT holdings was not a planned attack. Ironically, Binance's own FTT holdings, once worth $580 million, became "basically worthless" after the collapse, Zhao wrote. FAQs. What was in SBF's venture portfolio? Sam Bankman-Fried's holdings included an 8% stake in Anthropic, 5% of Cursor, and a position in SpaceX, according to Nansen CEO Alex Svanevik's post and Forbes reporting that valued the combined portfolio at roughly $100 billion. Why did Binance pull out of the FTX acquisition? What happened to SBF's venture holdings after FTX collapsed? Disclaimer. The information provided is not trading advice. Cryptopolitan.com holds no liability for any investments made based on the information provided on this page. Cryptopolitan strongly recommend independent research and/or consultation with a qualified professional before making any investment decisions. Hannah is a writer and editor with nearly a decade of blog writing and event reporting experience in the crypto space. At Cryptopolitan, Hannah contributes to the news page, reporting and analyzing the latest developments in DeFi, RWA, crypto regulation, AI and frontier tech industries. She graduated from Arcadia university with a degree in Business Administration. TABLE OF CONTENT

Former FTX executive Ryan Salame, once a co-CEO of the collapsed crypto exchange, is drawing attention after launching a highly visible social media campaign that appears aimed at securing a presidential pardon from Donald Trump. Despite currently serving a 90-month federal prison sentence, Salame's X account has recently become active with a steady stream of politically charged posts closely aligned with Trump-era Republican priorities. Over the past several weeks, Salame's posts have praised conservative policies, criticized Democrats, and echoed Donald Trump's rhetoric on immigration enforcement, voter ID laws, and alleged election integrity issues. In one viral post, Salame claimed that if granted clemency, he would "spend the remainder of my sentence working as an ICE agent," a statement that quickly gained traction online and reinforced his alignment with Trump's hardline immigration stance. In other messages, he argued that voter ID laws are being intentionally misrepresented and suggested that funding IDs would eliminate what he described as "fake pretending" around voter suppression. He has also claimed he would personally pay for legal citizens to obtain voter identification if he were free. Salame is currently incarcerated at a medium-security federal facility after pleading guilty in 2023 to campaign finance violations and operating an unlicensed money-transmitting business connected to FTX. Federal inmates are prohibited from accessing social media directly, leading to widespread belief that his posts are being published through third parties acting on his behalf, likely using phone calls or written correspondence, a common practice among high-profile inmates. Several of Salame's recent posts directly attack federal prosecutors, alleging coercion in his plea deal and claiming the Department of Justice misled him regarding investigations involving his wife. This narrative closely mirrors Trump's long-standing criticism of the DOJ and claims of politically motivated prosecutions. Salame's messaging comes at a time when Trump has issued a series of high-profile pardons and commutations, including cases involving financial and crypto-related crimes. While Salame has not explicitly requested a pardon, the tone and consistency of his public statements strongly suggest he is positioning himself for potential clemency by aligning as closely as possible with Trump's political agenda.