FTX proposes $4M employee bonus plan; intends to sell $45M stake in Sequoia Capital News ▸ FTX ▸ Bankruptcy
FTX proposes $4M employee bonus plan; intends to sell $45M stake in Sequoia Capital
FTX intends to sell its stake in venture capital firm Sequoia Capital for $45 million to Al Nawwar Investments RSC Limited.
2 min read
Updated: Mar. 9, 2023 at 5:37 pm UTC
Cover art/illustration via CryptoSlate. Image includes combined content which may include AI-generated content.
Bankrupt FTX proposed a retention plan that would pay the exchange’s employees bonuses of up to 94% of their salary, according to a March 8 court filing.
The bonus is capped at $4,027,204 and is designed to cater to employees with “unique and specialized skillsets” that would be difficult to replace and are critical to the firm’s case.
Per the filing, the FTX’s employees who qualify for these bonuses included those with programming knowledge of Python, Rust, Flutter, and NodeJS. Others include employees who know the firm’s administrative duties, accounting and finance processes, etc.
According to the filing, these employees have taken on added responsibilities and workload since FTX’s CEO, John Ray, reduced the exchange’s workforce. In addition, it said the firm’s current cryptocurrency and equity-based compensation programs had had little value since filing for bankruptcy.
Meanwhile, the filing stated that no bonuses would be paid to “insiders” or FTX’s former top executives – Samuel Bankman-Fried, Gary Wang, Nishad Singh, and Caroline Ellison – and their families. Besides that, no bonuses would be paid to employees engaged in wrongdoing.
FTX wants to sell its interest in Sequoia Capital for $45M
In a further development, FTX’s sister company Alameda Research intends to sell its stake in venture capital firm Sequoia Capital for $45 million to Al Nawwar Investments RSC Limited, according to a March 8 court filing.
According to the filing, Alameda agreed to sell to Al Nawwar because it made a “superior offer and ability to execute the Sale Transaction within a short time frame.”
Al Nawwar is a company incorporated under the Abu Dhabi Global Market laws and reportedly owned by the Abu Dhabi government. The filing noted that the company is also an investor in Sequoia Capital.
The deal is subject to the Delaware bankruptcy judge’s approval and is expected to close by March 31.
Meanwhile, Sequoia was one of FTX’s investors. The venture capital firm was one of the first investment companies to write off its investment in the crypto exchange.
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FTX
FTX is a defunct cryptocurrency exchange, currently in bankruptcy proceedings, that was founded by Sam Bankman-Fried and Zixiao “Gary” Wang in May 2019.
Alameda Research
Alameda Research was once a principal trading firm, operating as an arm of the failed crypto exchange, FTX.
Sam Bankman-Fried is the former CEO, and co-founder of defunct crypto exchange FTX and Alameda Research.
Caroline Ellison is the former lead trader and former CEO at Alameda Research.
John J Ray III is the Chief Restructuring Officer and now-appointed CEO of FTX, a cryptocurrency derivatives exchange.