BlackRock invested $24 million into bankrupt crypto exchange FTX founded by former crypto billionaire Sam-Bankman-Fried, CEO Larry Fink said at The New York Times Dealbook Summit.
Fink disclosed that the firm invested on behalf of BlackRock’s clients through a fund of a fund and hinted the firm may have been given false information, The New York Times (NYT) reported. Fink observed about FTX “it looks like there was some misbehavior of major consequence” and said “Until we have more facts, I will not speculate” about being misled, he told the NYT.
News: Larry Fink said this morning that BlackRock’s FTX investment was $24 million, a sum not previously publicly known, and that he sees a sea change ahead in the types of ventures that get funded: “I don’t believe we need another food-delivery company.” https://t.co/0FDENMxaXA
— Rebecca Ungarino (@ungarino) November 30, 2022
He went on to blame venture capitalists for the FTX debacle because they made large investments in FTX without doing due diligence, NYT reported. He expressed skepticism at the NYT summit about the crypto sector as a whole, saying he still believes “most of the companies will not be around.” Nonetheless, he insisted the technology behind crypto “will be very important,” Reuters first reported. (RELATED: The Biden Admin Just Made Woke Investing Even Easier)
Fink believes inflation will “rapidly abate” and the economy will see a period of slow growth afterwards. He fears “we will not be able to have any fiscal stimulus anytime soon. Deficits matter.”
FTX was once valued at $32 billion earlier this year, before the firm filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Nov. 11 days after a report about alleged misuse of customer funds generated mass withdrawals. Most of Bankman-Fried’s wealth was tied to FTX and now he has $100,000 left in his bank account, he told Axios.
Bankman-Fried will be interviewed by Andrew Ross Sorkin live at the Dealbook Summit Wednesday beginning at 5PM Eastern. The NYT said no questions will be off limits about the collapse of FTX and Bankman-Fried’s crypto fortune.
Other interviewees at Dealbook include Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.