The FTX bankruptcy estate sold a 5% stake in Cursor, the AI coding startup built by Anysphere, for $200,000 in April 2023. Earlier this week, SpaceX secured the right to acquire Cursor at a $60 billion valuation, which puts the same 5% position at roughly $3 billion. The transaction has reopened the long-running argument about whether the estate moved too fast and too cheap on early-stage assets during the FTX wind-down.
How the Cursor Position Was Built and Sold
The stake originated with Alameda Research, the quantitative trading firm also founded by Sam Bankman-Fried. In April 2022, Alameda invested $200,000 in Anysphere at a reported $4 million valuation, securing roughly 5% of the company. A year later, FTX had collapsed, Alameda was in bankruptcy, and the court-appointed estate had begun liquidating holdings. The Cursor stake was sold for the same $200,000 it had originally cost.
On Wednesday, SpaceX said it has secured the right to acquire Cursor later this year at a $60 billion valuation, with a $10 billion breakup fee if the deal does not proceed. Against that benchmark, the $200,000 sale represents a position now worth around $3 billion.
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Scrutiny Over Bankruptcy Asset Sales Intensifies
The Cursor case is not the first time the estate’s liquidation strategy has been questioned. Bankman-Fried, now serving a 25-year federal sentence, has publicly argued multiple times that the estate destroyed significant value by selling early-stage positions at depressed prices during the first twelve months of bankruptcy.
In a post on X earlier this year, Bankman-Fried wrote: “FTX was never bankrupt. I never filed for it. The lawyers took over the company and 4 hours later, they filed a bogus bankruptcy so they could pilfer it for money.”
The legal picture is separate from the valuation argument. Bankman-Fried was convicted on multiple federal charges including fraud and conspiracy, and prosecutors successfully argued that he orchestrated one of the largest financial frauds in US history, misappropriating billions in customer funds and routing them through Alameda for risky investments, political donations and personal spending. FTX creditors have since been repaid in dollar terms under the restructuring plan, receiving claim values plus interest.
The Bigger Picture: $114 Billion in Estimated Missed Value
Analysis from financial research platform Bull Theory estimates that key positions sold early by the FTX estate could now be worth roughly $114 billion if they had been held through recent market cycles. Cursor is one data point on a much longer list.
| Company | Estimated Current Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Anthropic | Over $80 billion | 8% stake bought for $500M, roughly 165x increase |
| SpaceX | Around $15 billion | Value impact from early liquidations |
| Solana | Around $5.1 billion | Reported 27x move since sale |
| Robinhood | Around $4.9 billion | Equity position liquidated in restructuring |
| Genesis Digital | Around $3.5 billion | Mining company stake sold during bankruptcy |
| Cursor (Anysphere) | Around $3 billion | 5% stake sold for $200K, company now valued at $60B |
The estate ultimately recovered about $18 billion for users across its wind-down, a figure that made full creditor repayment possible. Bull Theory framed the contrast bluntly on X: “SBF was a genius at picking generational winners and a criminal at managing their money.”
Why This Specific Sale Stands Out
Cursor is a clean case because the entry and exit prices match to the dollar. Alameda paid $200,000 in 2022. The estate sold for $200,000 in 2023. SpaceX is now paying at a valuation that implies $3 billion for that same position. There is no ambiguity about cost basis, holding period, or valuation methodology. The sale simply returned the original investment with no upside captured.
The broader question the case raises is structural rather than legal. Bankruptcy estates are under pressure to convert illiquid positions into cash quickly, both to satisfy creditor timelines and to reduce ongoing administration costs. Early-stage equity in private companies is precisely the type of asset where that pressure produces the widest gap between liquidation price and eventual value. The Cursor-SpaceX transaction makes that gap unusually visible in this case, with a clean benchmark attached to a specific date.
