FTX Ventures, the venture arm of Sam Bankman-Fried’s crypto exchange FTX, agreed to buy a 30% stake in SkyBridge Capital, which has shifted from its fund of hedge fund roots to become a multi-strategy alternative investment firm investing in hedge funds, crypto, fintech and venture capital.
The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed but SkyBridge plans to use a portion of the proceeds to buy $40 million in cryptocurrencies to hold on its corporate balance sheet as a long-term investment. FTX Ventures’ investment will offer SkyBridge additional working capital to fund growth initiatives and new product launches.
Earlier this year, SkyBridge Founder and Managing Partner Anthony Scaramucci discussed the launch of a digital assets fund on the sidelines of a Miami conference. Since then, the firm has made headlines as it has had to gate investors in its Legion Strategies fund, which was one of the firm’s longstanding multi-manager hedge fund offerings.
FTX is also a sponsor of the firm’s SALT conferences around the world and Scaramucci and Bankman-Fried are set to share the stage at the SALT NY conference next week.
“After working with Anthony and his team following our SALT conference partnership, we saw there was an opportunity to work closer together in ways that could complement both our businesses,” said Bankman-Fried in a press statement. “We look forward to collaborating closely with SkyBridge on its crypto investment activity and also working alongside them on promising non-crypto-related investments.”
According to the announcement the pair will also co-present Crypto Bahamas, a digital assets conference that launched in April 2022. The firms intend to expand their collaboration on venture and digital asset investing across current and future product offerings.
“Sam is a visionary who has built incredible businesses that are synergistic with the future of SkyBridge,” said Scaramucci in a statement. “Our business has continued to evolve since we founded the firm in 2005. We will remain a diversified asset management firm, while investing heavily in blockchain.”
