FTX's bankruptcy estate sold its 8% stake in Anthropic for $1.3 billion in 2024, a deal that looked profitable at the time. The AI company has since raised funds at a $965 billion valuation, meaning the stake FTX sold would now be worth between $60 billion and $77 billion on paper. The biggest buyer was ATIC Third International Investment, linked to Abu Dhabi's Mubadala fund, which paid nearly $500 million. Jane Street, where FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried previously worked, bought $100 million worth. Other buyers included Fidelity, Ford Foundation, and HOF Capital. FTX creditors have recovered 103% to 120% of their claims, totalling roughly $10 billion across five payment rounds. However, claims were valued at November 2022 prices, when bitcoin traded around $16,000, meaning customers won't benefit from subsequent crypto appreciation or Anthropic's massive valuation increase.

Hudson River Trading hired an ex-Goldman Sachs MD for its growing venture capital arm. 38 minutes ago Want to work as a venture capitalist but not at a venture capital firm? In the past your best bet might have been to work in Goldman Sachs' elite 'principal strategic investments (PSI) group' which, as of 2019, had invested $1.5bn in 76 companies. Today VC is a space that electronic trading firms are breaking into, and one of the biggest has hired an alum of that elite team in London to help it grow. Matt O'Neill has joined Hudson River Trading in London as an investor with HRT Ventures. HRT's website says that it invests in "early-stage ventures seeking to influence capital markets, trading, and the broader financial landscape." The firm has been making venture investments since at least 2021 when it invested in investment platform Republic. Other investments include AI infrastructure firm Eridu and sports trading platform Sporttrade. O'Neill was most recently at another trading firm, Flow Traders, where he was global head of business development. He spent three years there, working on relationship management with banks alongside the firm's VC initiatives. Before that, he spent 14 years at Goldman Sachs across two separate stints, where he was an MD and helped set up the PSI group's Hong Kong business. He also spent five years at Morgan Stanley's equities clearing business. Jane Street has been getting involved in private markets too, most notably by acquiring a stake in Anthropic from FTX following its bankruptcy. The firm has used these investments as an opportunity to "expand [into] businesses that are more public facing" according to Jane Street trader John Case in an interview with the Wall Street Journal in June. The prevalence of trading firms in the VC space may also be influenced by the various trading firm alums who have built successful startups. HRT's first intern class famously included several major players in the AI space today including Meta chief AI officer Alexandr Wang, Cognition CEO Scott Wu and Hyperliquid founder Jeff Yan. O'Neill did not respond to a request for comment. Have a confidential story, tip, or comment you'd like to share? Contact: WhatsApp: http://wa.me/442079977910 (+44 20 7997 7910), Telegram: @AlexMcMurray, Signal: @AlexMcMurrayEFC.88 Click here to fill in our anonymous form, or email [email protected]. Bear with us if you leave a comment at the bottom of this article: comments are moderated intermittently by human beings. Sometimes these humans might be asleep, or away from their desks, so it may take a while for your comment to appear. You must take sole responsibility for comments you post on this site. We will take reasonable steps to weed out anything that we consider to be offensive or inappropriate. The essential daily roundup of news and analysis read by everyone from senior bankers and traders to new recruits. Boost your career. Find thousands of job opportunities by signing up to eFinancialCareers today. Top Articles

Circle has raised $440 million in what the company calls the largest crypto funding round in history. The financing ranks among the top 10 private fintech investments and will support Circle's growth, organisational development, and market expansion. Investors include Fidelity Management and Research Company, Marshall Wace, Willett Advisors, Digital Currency Group, FTX, Breyer Capital, and others. Circle provides payments and treasury infrastructure for internet businesses, enabling them to use stablecoins and public blockchains. The company's platform has processed over 100 million transactions for more than 10 million retail customers and 1,000 businesses. Circle co-develops USD Coin (USDC) with Coinbase. USDC has reached $22 billion in circulation and supported over $615 billion in transactions over the past year, growing 436% in 2021.