The Day CZ Missed the Best Investment of His Life, Crypto Missed AI
CZ, the founder of Binance, famously sold his Shanghai apartment in 2014 to buy Bitcoin—a move that would have yielded nearly $190 million at its peak. But an even bigger opportunity came years later, one that he ultimately walked away from.
In November 2021, amid a liquidity crisis at FTX, Binance signed a non-binding letter of intent to acquire the rival exchange. The deal fell through within days, accelerating FTX’s collapse. Unbeknownst to many, FTX held a hidden gem in its portfolio: a $500 million lead investment in AI startup Anthropic, acquired in April 2021 for a 13.56% stake (later diluted to 7.84%).
At the time, AI had not yet entered its explosive growth phase. But after the launch of ChatGPT and the rise of Anthropic’s Claude models, the company’s valuation soared. Recent reports suggest Anthropic is raising funds at a valuation as high as $350 billion. At that level, FTX’s stake would have been worth approximately $27.44 billion—more than enough to cover the exchange’s infamous shortfall.
After FTX’s bankruptcy, its Anthropic shares were sold off in court-approved transactions totaling over $1.3 billion to traditional financial firms and Abu Dhabi-based investors—not to crypto companies.
The article reflects on what could have been: had CZ acquired FTX, or had SBF held on, a major crypto-native entity could have held influence in one of AI’s top firms, potentially fostering deeper integration between crypto and AI. Instead, that opportunity slipped into traditional finance’s—a missed chance for both CZ and the crypto industry.
Odaily星球日报02/09 04:17
