Sam Bankman-Fried to cash in on $100 million after Musk finalizes Twitter purchase

Crypto-currency exchange FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried is reportedly poised to cash in on up to $100 million after Musk’s purchase of Twitter. Sources revealed that Bankman-Fried could cash in on as much as $100 million, as he owned about $50 million to $100 million worth of shares in Twitter before the acquisition.

After months of back and forth, Elon Musk finally paid $44 billion to take Twitter private on Thursday, October 27. The billionaire was forced to close the deal after a Delaware judge gave him until October 28.

FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried is expected to make up to $100 million from Musk’s acquisition of Twitter.

With Elon Musk shelling out $44 billion to acquire Twitter, Bankman-Fried now holds a 0.1 to 0.2 percent stake in the social network. Under Musk’s leadership, we should expect specific changes and restructuring. Twitter’s new owner has already begun to leave his mark by firing CEO Parag Agrawal. In addition to Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal was also forced to leave the company. Others affected are Sean Edgett, Twitter’s lawyer, and Vijaya Gadee, head of legal policy, trust and security. Prior to the firing, Musk had always blamed Gadee for being involved in banning Donald Trump from the platform.

There have also been rumors that Elon Musk would get rid of about 75% of all Twitter employees once he owns it. However, a source revealed to Bloomberg that he has told staff that he has no such plans. Firing four high-level employees overnight isn’t exactly the assurance the staff was expecting.

There were reports that Bankman-Fried was supposed to contribute to Musk’s plan to buy Twitter. However, the FTX CEO was not part of it. A report said that the exchange boss informed Musk of his intention not to pursue the support after a phone call between the two. Bankman-Fried had pledged to invest up to $15 billion to support Musk’s vision to buy Twitter. The details were revealed last month in a series of texts that circulated.

SBF did not contribute to Musk’s Twitter buyout as expected

After SBF declared its intention to contribute to the deal, his adviser Will MacAskill tried to arrange a meeting between the stock exchange official and Musk. According to the texts, Musk was unsure whether Bankman-Fried could support his plan to take Twitter private. The billionaire asked the adviser if SBF had “huge amounts of money“, and MacAskill responded that he was worth about $24 billion. At the end of the comment, Musk stated that he was avoiding having “A laborious debate about blockchain.“

On the other hand, FTX’s competitor, Binance, is a confirmed investor in Twitter. The exchange has committed $500 million to Musk’s buyout. CZ wrote on Twitter:

“Our intern says we wired the %500 million 2 days ago, probably just as I was being asked about Elon/Twitter.”