Tom Brady, Gisele Bündchen at risk of losing $650M investment in FTX
NFL football star Tom Brady and supermodel Gisele Bündchen staked their $650 million fortune in the now-beleaguered FTX crypto exchange during its bullish days.
In June 2021, Brady and Bündchen each took an equity stake in FTX Trading Limited as part of a long-term partnership, according to Essentially Sports. The deal gave Brady an ambassador role for FTX and Bündchen the role of Environmental and Social Initiatives Advisor. Brady also received Bitcoin as part of the deal but the rest of the equity stake and terms were not disclosed.
With recent developments leading to Binance’s buyout of FTX, Brady, and Bündchen’s $650 million stake is at considerable risk.
Speculation and concerns about the solvency of FTX have been mounting as Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” revealed Binance is liquidating all remaining FTT tokens on its books and the acquisition of FTX reports revealed that FTX’s sister company Alameda Research trading firm had assets worth $ 14.6 billion linked to the token. CZ announced it will liquidate FTT gradually and described the move as post-exit risk management, citing lessons learned from Terra Luna’s collapse.
FTX exchange’s CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried “SBF” confirmed rumors that FTX was struggling to clear its withdrawal backlog, which contradicts his Monday tweet that “FTX is fine. Assets are fine.” A halt in all non-fiat customer withdrawals ensued, shedding light on the company’s deteriorating condition.
The near-collapse of FTX also saw SBF’s net worth, originally estimated to be $ 15.2 million prior to GTX’s collapse, fall by nearly 94% to $99.15 million as his assets are linked to about half of the beleaguered FTX and a share of its FTT tokens. He also lost his billionaire status overnight in the wake of the event.
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