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☆ FTX: Inside the crypto giant's downfall
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-18 | by ( Allison Morrow | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

Crypto contagionThe crypto industry is on edge, waiting for the next dominoes to fall. Soon after FTX went down, crypto firms were inundated requests from customers seeking to claw their money back — the crypto equivalent of a run on the bank. The pain isn’t confined to crypto companies. SBF had become a fixture in Washington, too, where he regularly traveled to lobby lawmakers for greater regulatory clarity for the crypto industry. “It’s about fraud and the power of virtue signaling.”He added: “This scandal, far from destroying crypto, practically ensures that crypto will be around for a long, long time.”

☆ Ontario Teacher's pension fund to write down investments of $95 mln in FTX
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

Nov 17 (Reuters) - Canada's Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan said on Thursday it will be writing down about $95 million of investments it had made in bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX Group by the end of the year. Reporting by Leroy Leo in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh KuberOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Breakingviews: FTX affords a turning point in venture governance
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( Liam Proud | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The new chief executive of the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange, insolvency veteran John Ray, uncovered giant financial gaps and signs of looting. Ray’s first in-depth account, submitted to the court on Thursday, reveals a brazen lack of controls and governance. Financial statements dated to Sept. 30, when founder Sam Bankman-Fried was in charge, contain no record of customer liabilities at either the U.S. subsidiary or the international division. Many of the FTX corporate entities never had board meetings. Ray also criticised his predecessor and FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried for making “erratic and misleading public statements”.

☆ FTX affords a turning point in venture governance
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( Liam Proud | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

☆ Canada's largest pension fund CPPIB among the investors indirectly hit by FTX blowup
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-15 | by ( Danielle Walker | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board had an indirect exposure to FTX through a Sequoia private-equity fund it was invested in. Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan said last week that it had invested a total of $95 million in FTX International and its US entity since October 2021. The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, one of the world's largest pension funds, can be counted among the investors now impacted, either directly or indirectly, by the blowup of crypto exchange FTX. Toronto-based CPPIB has an indirect exposure to FTX through its investment in a Sequoia Capital private-equity fund. Sequoia's other impacted fund, SCGE Fund, L.P. had $63.5 million invested in FTX and FTX US, according to the firm's letter to clients.

☆ Attabotics raises $71 million as startups vie with Amazon over robotic warehouse of the future
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-15 | by ( Ian Thomas | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Attabotics' all-in-one automated fulfillment system is condensed into a single vertical structure, using robotic shuttles to pick goods and then deliver to workers. Attabotics, a 3-D robotics supply chain company, has raised $71.7 million in new funding to continue its push into automatizing warehouses. The raise comes amid the push to further optimize shipping fulfillment and warehouse technology as e-commerce continues to grow. Amazon has steadily added to its fleet of warehouse robots since it acquired Kiva Systems for $775 million in 2012, which has now become Amazon Robotics, the company's in-house incubator of robotic fulfillment systems. In June, Amazon unveiled its first fully autonomous robot that can operate alongside warehouse workers, in addition to other systems that can sort and move packages.

☆ How the crypto fallout could affect you
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-15 | by ( Nicole Goodkind | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

New York CNN Business —The crypto industry is still reeling from last week’s shocking death spiral of digital currency exchange FTX. While these funds say they had limited exposure to FTX, their inclusion points to a growing but alarming trend that could affect you even if you’re not a buyer of crypto yourself. What’s happening: Pension funds are increasingly investing in alternative assets in search of bigger returns. In the United States, public pension funds are facing serious challenges that threaten the retirement plans of millions of state and local government employees. It’s not just a trend that’s happening in the United States.

☆ After FTX's collapse, VCs across industries are finally admitting to crypto's failures — and they're preparing for 'more blows to come'
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-14 | by ( April Joyner | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Investors stuck to crypto startups they considered "safe bets," but FTX's failure challenges that idea. Crypto startups held yacht parties through the summer and into early fall at events such as NFT.NYC and Messari Mainnet. "The whole crypto space is a high-leverage space, and it's susceptible to cascading failures." The events of the past week are unlikely to whet risk-averse LPs' appetite for crypto, investors told Insider. Even so, several investors who have backed crypto startups told Insider that despite the industry's recent travails, they remain believers in the technology.

☆ Factbox: What are FTX's investors saying?
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-11 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Here's what investors in FTX are saying now:SOFTBANKThe total investment of SoftBank Group Corp's (9984.T) Vision Fund in the U.S. and international operations of FTX is less than $100 million, a source close to SoftBank said on Friday. The complications at FTX mark the latest difficulty for the Vision Fund, which has been hit in recent quarters by a global tech rout. SEQUOIA CAPITALSequoia Capital said on Wednesday that it would mark down its total investments in FTX to $0. ONTARIO TEACHERS PENSION PLANThe Ontario Teachers Pension Plan (OTPP) said on Thursday it had invested a total of $95 million in FTX. CIRCLEFintech company Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire said in a tweet on Wednesday that "Circle is a tiny equity holder of FTX, and FTX is a tiny equity holder of Circle."

☆ Wall Street pushed into digital assets. Now investors are paying the price as FTX's crisis raises questions of a ripple effect in cryptoworld.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-11 | by ( Rebecca Ungarino | Danielle Walker | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

FTX, the crypto exchange in crisis, found backers in BlackRock, VanEck, and Ontario Teachers. The solvency crisis facing the exchange and its famous CEO raises questions of a ripple effect. Now, in the middle of crypto winter, FTX is in the middle of a solvency crisis. Binance, a rival crypto exchange that was initially going to buy FTX, backed out. "What we like about it is that we're not really speculating on whether prices of crypto assets, bitcoin or otherwise, are going up or down.

☆ Scaramucci's SkyBridge Capital looking to buy back stake from FTX - CNBC
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-11 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

Ontario Pension says any loss from FTX investment to have limited impact, article with imageTechnology category · November 10, 2022The Ontario Teachers Pension Plan (OTPP) said on Thursday it had invested a total of $95 million to the troubled cryptocurrency exchange FTX and any financial loss from the exposure will have limited impact on the pension plan.

☆ Crypto: What's next as FTX collapse triggers 'Lehman moment'?
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-11 | by ( Julia Horowitz | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

And can the beaten-down crypto industry bounce back? What’s clear is that the fallout from the FTX crisis injects significant volatility into the crypto ecosystem. “Thank God!”Can the crypto industry survive? “In the short term, this is going to be really, really bad for the crypto industry,” said Jog of Sei Labs. Fok said he expects the FTX collapse will push institutional investors away from the crypto space just as they had been warming up to it.

Bankman-Fried said he was in talks with "a number of players" in the crypto sector, including Justin Sun who is the founder of crypto token Tron, after a potential rescue deal with larger rival Binance fell apart. He also said his firm Alameda Research, which sources have said was partly behind FTX's problems, was winding down trading. FTX's native token, FTT , is down more than 90% this week and was attempting to steady around $3.50. Another exchange, OKX, said it had been approached earlier in the week by Bankman-Fried, who described liabilities of $7 billion that needed covering fast. Bankman-Fried said FTX.US, the U.S. operations of the exchange, however, had not been financially impacted.

☆ Ontario Pension says any loss from FTX investment to have limited impact
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

TORONTO, Nov 10 (Reuters) - The Ontario Teachers Pension Plan (OTPP) said on Thursday it had invested a total of $95 million to the troubled cryptocurrency exchange FTX and any financial loss from the exposure will have limited impact on the pension plan. OTPP, Canada's No. 3 pension fund, said it made the investments in FTX International and FTX U.S. exchange through its Teachers' Venture Growth fund, representing less than 0.05% of the pension fund's total net assets, it said. FTX is scrambling to raise funds investors and rivals as Chief Executive Sam Bankman-Fried urgently seeks to save the cryptocurrency exchange that has been buffeted by a rush of customer withdrawals. read moreReporting by Divya RajagopalOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Canada's PSP fund to double issuance of long-term green bonds
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

TORONTO, Nov 10 (Reuters) - Canada’s Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP Investments) aims to more than double the C$1 billion ($749 million) value of sustainable bond issuance by 2026, an official at the pension fund told Reuters on Thursday. The pension scheme, which manages C$230.5 billion in assets, issued its first-ever green bond in February this year as part of its goal to reach net-zero emissions. Several other pensions including Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan (OTPP), Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), have also issued green bonds. Neither OTPP, CPPIB nor Caisse have set targets for green bond issuance. PSP, Canada's fifth-largest pension investment manager, also increased its exposure to green assets by C$6.12 billion to C$46.5 billion in 2022, it said in a report released on Thursday.

FTX head Sam Bankman-Fried said he was "exploring all the options", but fading hopes for rescue left FTX teetering. A message on the FTX website said: "FTX is currently unable to process withdrawals. "The dagger will continue to hang over the crypto market, as long as the outlook of FTX's fate remains unclear." 'CONFIDENCE CRISIS'There are also early signs that the fallout could spread beyond crypto markets, with jittery stockmarkets sliding on Wall Street overnight. Most crypto players remain bullish about the long term, but are braced for further falls in the near future.

He is seeking the remainder from other funds, including current investors in FTX such as venture capital fund Sequoia Capital, the source added. Bankman-Fried told investors that Alameda owes FTX about $10 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported. FTX had lent more than half of its customer funds to Alameda, the newspaper said. The U.S. securities regulator is investigating FTX.com's handling of customer funds and crypto-lending activities, according to a source with knowledge of the inquiry. Canada's Ontario Teachers Pension Plan, Tiger Global and Japan's Softbank are also FTX investors.

☆ Crypto is in chaos as FTX files for bankruptcy
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-10 | by ( Allison Morrow | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

By Friday morning, FTX said Bankman-Fried had resigned as CEO and that the firm was filing for bankruptcy. Failures are not uncommon in the murky, largely unregulated world of crypto, but FTX is not your average crypto startup. Namely, that the bulk of its assets are held in FTT, a digital token minted by Alameda’s sister firm, FTX. On Sunday, the CEO of Binance, FTX’s much larger rival, said his company was liquidating $580 million worth of FTX holdings. After a chaotic week, FTX filed for bankruptcy.

☆ India renewables push gets lift from patient money
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-19 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

MUMBAI, Sept 19 (Reuters Breakingviews) - As global borrowing costs rise, patient foreign investors are stepping up to help tycoons recycle capital and speed India’s energy transition. The wider deal will help the unit of $19 billion Mahindra and Mahindra (MAHM.NS) repay a shareholder loan as Indian businesses deleverage en masse. In April, Tata Power (TTPW.NS) struck a deal with BlackRock (BLK.N) and Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterSimilar tie-ups helped renewables power 60% of India’s energy capacity additions in the past six years, according to Moody’s. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias.

☆ As families and 'Parrotheads' flock to campgrounds and RV parks, institutional real-estate investors see their next big score
▼ + stars: | 2022-05-23 | by ( Alex Nicoll | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +13 min

Investors are eyeing profits in campgrounds and RV parks as Americans flock to the great outdoors. Camp Margaritaville RV Resort and Cabana Cabins Auburndale, Central FloridaThe trend is also driven by demographics. Sam Zell's Equity Lifestyle Properties, another large REIT that invests in RV parks alongside mobile homes, has also been busy. While it's not clear how much big investors have thrown into RV campgrounds, manufactured housing communities as a whole have seen a burst of Wall Street financing. After looking hard at multifamily and industrial, he settled with RV parks.

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