as more details emerge regarding the events leading up to FTX's bankruptcy and shocking collapse, investors in the cryptocurrency exchange are also being scrutinized.
I mean, many people wonder how it is possible for so many high-profile investment firms to pour in a collective $2 billion with seemingly so little due diligence.
The notorious Japanese investment conglomerate Softbank, for example, is just one of many such companies that backed FTX after it went live. R.raised a round of financing of 400 million dollars in January, valuing the company at a staggering $32.000 billion. Softbank, which he invested as part of his Vision Fund 2, revealed that he has sunk just under $100 million in the company. That investment is now zero marked with Softbank saying that "it would not face a material reduction in the value of its participation", according to Market Watch.
Softbank also invested money in Katerra, a building tech startup that also spent more than $2 billion in funding before Turning off in June 2021. The signature also borrowed $100 million to the blood analysis company Theranos in 2017 through a private equity arm. and also injected $500 million at digital mortgage lender best.com before registering for co-direct your SPAC never materialized. That company has been the subject of several scandals over the past year and has been struggling with rising mortgage rates, a sluggish housing market and a volatile CEO.
The November 12, Nikkei Asia reported that SoftBank Group had "It lost all of the cumulative investment gains it had achieved through its Vision Fund business as global rate rises and a weakening economic outlook hit portfolio company valuations."
The post went on to add that the "Vision Funds' unrealized gains since the start of the investment in 2017 fell to a negative $1,46 billion in the July-September period, down from a positive $8,49 billion three months ago, according to its filing for quarterly earnings.
