The US government sold approximately $627 million worth of Anthropic shares forfeited by two former FTX executives in October 2025, according to newly disclosed information in the artificial intelligence company’s initial public offering registration.
The transaction involved 4,453,900 Series B preferred shares previously owned by former Alameda Research chief executive Caroline Ellison and former FTX engineering director Nishad Singh. Anthropic disclosed the sale in its Form S-1 filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on October 26, 2026.
The shares were repurchased by Anthropic at $140.9676 each and subsequently resold to nine accredited investors at the same price. At a hypothetical $1.5 trillion valuation for Anthropic, the equity could be worth approximately $3.94 billion, more than six times the government’s original sale proceeds.
However, the higher figure represents an estimated valuation rather than a realized transaction price, and Anthropic has not finalized its IPO pricing.
Forfeited Shares Generated More Than Twelvefold Return
Ellison and Singh originally invested a combined $50 million in Anthropic during its 2022 Series B financing. Singh contributed approximately $40 million, while Ellison invested $10 million, acquiring shares at approximately $11.23 each. The investments occurred before FTX collapsed in November 2022, exposing billions of dollars in customer shortfalls and triggering criminal proceedings against senior executives.
Both Ellison and Singh subsequently pleaded guilty to offenses connected with the exchange and cooperated with federal prosecutors. Their Anthropic holdings were forfeited to the US government through separate criminal proceedings, with federal authorities obtaining ownership by April 2025.
In October 2025, Anthropic repurchased the shares for approximately $627 million, equivalent to more than 12 times their original acquisition cost. The transaction price matched the valuation used in Anthropic’s Series F-1 financing completed the preceding month.
Anthropic then transferred the shares to nine accredited investors for the same aggregate consideration, recording no profit from the transactions. The company’s filing does not identify the buyers or disclose their individual allocations. The transaction became public only after Anthropic submitted its registration statement ahead of a proposed Nasdaq listing under the ticker ANT.
Sale Proceeds Directed Toward FTX Creditor Recoveries
The US Department of Justice confirmed that proceeds from the forfeited shares were transferred to the FTX bankruptcy estate to compensate victims of the exchange’s collapse. Court filings referenced in subsequent reporting show approximately $638 million transferred by federal authorities in late 2025.
That amount differs from the $627 million Anthropic transaction value, and the available disclosures do not fully reconcile the difference. The transaction was separate from the FTX bankruptcy estate’s earlier sale of shares associated with founder Sam Bankman-Fried.
In 2024, the estate sold its Anthropic holdings for approximately $1.3 billion, generating funds for creditor distributions. The latest disclosure highlights the substantial appreciation of Anthropic’s equity since the original investments. At an assumed $1.5 trillion valuation, the forfeited stake would be worth approximately $3.94 billion, representing a hypothetical increase of roughly $3.31 billion over the government’s sale proceeds.
However, that comparison does not establish that federal authorities or FTX creditors incurred an actual financial loss. The government realized the value available under the October 2025 transaction, while the higher estimate depends on a later valuation assumption.
Anthropic’s October 26 preliminary prospectus also leaves the proposed IPO share count and price range unspecified. Consequently, the nine investors’ potential gains remain unrealized, and their eventual returns will depend on the company’s public offering and subsequent market valuation.
For FTX creditors, the relevant confirmed development is the conversion of forfeited private equity into cash available for compensation. The disclosure illustrates how assets connected to the failed cryptocurrency exchange have continued generating recoveries nearly four years after its collapse.
