By Berber Jin
FTX said on Friday that it had reached a settlement with the venture firm K5 Global, ending its efforts to claw back cash from one of Sam Bankman-Fried's largest tech investments before his crypto exchange went bankrupt in late 2022.
FTX sued K5 Global in June 2023, seeking to recover $700 million of company funds Bankman-Fried invested into the venture firm. The lawsuit was part of a broader effort to unwind certain transactions the company made before going bankrupt. Now, FTX intends to keep its stake in K5's funds.
"It is clear that K5 is a bright spot in the FTX portfolio, and the expected strong performance of their investments will be a key driver in the recovery efforts for our stakeholders," said FTX CEO John J. Ray III, who is leading efforts to reclaim funds for the exchange's customers.
In October, FTX won court approval to begin repaying customers and has said it intends to make them whole. The company's recovery efforts have benefitted from a rise in crypto prices and the sale of assets such as a stake in the AI company Anthropic.
K5 was co-founded by Bryan Baum and Michael Kives, a former Hollywood agent and aide to the Clinton administration. The firm has invested in startups including SpaceX, Anduril, and xAI.
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 31, 2025 16:04 ET (21:04 GMT)
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