By
Chimamanda U. Martha
June 24th, 2024
VC firm Tribe Capital is also considering leading the $250-million fundraising campaign, anchored by $100 million from itself and its limited partners.
Within six months of filing for bankruptcy in November 2022, crypto exchange FTX is now looking to restart its operations. Interestingly, FTX has also started receiving bid applications from venture capital firms. VC firm Tribe Capital is now looking to make fresh investments in FTX amid plans of reopening. Interestingly, Tribe Capital was also an investor in the crypto exchange prior to its collapse.
FTX and VC Investments
Arjun Sethi, the co-founder of Tribe Capital met with FTX’s committee of unsecured creditors earlier this year in January 2023 to discuss an informal proposal. Sources familiar with the matter told Bloomberg that Tribe Capital is also considering leading the $250-million fundraising campaign, anchored by $100 million from itself and its limited partners.
Ahead of FTX’s bankruptcy, Tribe Capital has been investing in both – FTX US and the international exchange FTX. Founded back in 2018, VC firm Tribe Capital has more than $1.6 billion in assets under management and has been investing in a number of crypto firms such as Kraken, payments firm Bolt, and e-commerce vendor Shiprocket.
From its proposal this year in January, Tribe Capital is expecting a reach of 9 million customer accounts across FTX, Australia, FTX US, FTX EU, FTX Japan, LedgerX, and FTX International. However, they have excluded a venture capital portfolio and crypto assets. Also, the proposal notes that the new exchange shall continue to operate under the same name as FTX.
FTX’s Plans for Reopening
Last week, FTX’s lead attorney stated that they are working on plans to reopen the exchange. FTX’s new chief executive officer John J. Ray III, stated that they seek to decide by the second quarter whether a reopening is feasible or not.
FTX attorney Andrew G. Dietderich also stated that the company is still in the early stage of evaluating the idea of re-opening. This is because a restart would require a significant amount of cash, a majority of which shall come from third-party investors. In a statement later, FTX’s committee of unsecured creditors said it is “working with the debtors to evaluate all options to reboot or sell the FTX exchanges,” and that “there’s no definitive timetable for a reboot or sale of the exchanges at this time.”
FTT, the native token of the crypto exchange FTX has seen a strong surge in its price. As of the press time, the FTT token is trading 11.82% up at a price of $2.07.