Sam Bankman-Fried's Emergent Fidelity Technologies Files for Bankruptcy

Emergent is owner of 56 million shares of online brokerage Robinhood.

AccessTimeIconFeb 3, 2023 at 10:16 p.m. UTC
Updated May 9, 2023 at 4:07 a.m. UTC
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Emergent Fidelity Technologies, a firm co-founded by FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried and former executive Gary Wang, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection late Friday.

Emergent Fidelity was the company which held 56 million shares of Robinhood Markets (HOOD) stock, an asset that quickly became a subject of key interest among several companies for the value it could bring FTX creditors. The shares were also pledged as collateral to bankrupt crypto lender BlockFi, which placed its own claim last year.

Bankman-Fried has argued he should retain control of the shares. Nevertheless, federal officials moved to seize control of the assets in January.

Those 56 million shares of Robinhood are worth more than $600 million at today's closing price. Bloomberg reported the only other asset owned by Emergent Fidelity was $20.7 million in cash.

Bankman-Fried is the owner of 90% of Emergent Fidelity, and with FTX co-founder Wang owning the remaining 10%.

Emergent Fidelity's bankruptcy filing could not immediately be obtained. It is unclear what debts Emergent is claiming at this time.

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Nikhilesh De

Nikhilesh De is CoinDesk's managing editor for global policy and regulation. He owns marginal amounts of bitcoin and ether.


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