There are two "Effective Altruist Sams" in the AI world: one basking in the industry's spotlight, the other selling flying unicorns from prison
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There are two "Effective Altruist Sams" in the AI world: one basking in the industry's spotlight, the other selling flying unicorns from prison
Forced to "sell out" hundreds of times over, SBF foresaw the future but lost the present.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsAuthor: Penny
In the crypto world, SBF has always embodied a contradiction—he was both a self-proclaimed evangelist of "effective altruism" and a shrewd capital operator adept at market games; he claimed to safeguard humanity's future through technological investment, yet dragged millions of investors into ruin due to uncontrolled systemic risks. Similarly, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is also an "effective altruist," repeatedly emphasizing publicly that "AGI development must advance under the premise of safety and benefit," attempting to overcome obstacles in AI development through technology, policy, and social solutions. Two years after the collapse of the FTX empire, as we reexamine its investment portfolio framed around "technology benefiting humanity," we find that those once-misunderstood forward-looking bets have gradually revealed astonishing foresight amid technological evolution; meanwhile, the liquidated assets worth billions are now valued double, turning into heartbreaking missed opportunities.
The OG of Effective Altruism Was Destined to Back an AI Unicorn
SBF repeatedly emphasized in public interviews that his philosophy of action is rooted in "effective altruism," having been instilled from childhood with extreme altruistic values focused on maximizing happiness for others. He advocated accumulating wealth maximally to support long-term societal welfare, such as preventing pandemics and reducing global poverty.
Since 2014, SBF had been part of the effective altruism movement, consistently framing "earning to give" as a life mission. In April 2022, during an interview with The New York Times, he stated he deliberately chose a high-income career path so he could donate more to charity in the future.
SBF’s focus on disruptive technology aligns closely with the long-termism central to effective altruism. He viewed AI as the core of future technological transformation, capable of generating long-term social value by improving efficiency or solving major challenges like healthcare and climate change. For instance, he previously planned to fund R&D for technologies aimed at preventing future pandemics—work directly related to AI applications in biomedicine, such as protein folding research.
In February 2022, SBF and several FTX colleagues announced the creation of the "Future Fund," dedicated to financing ambitious projects designed to improve humanity’s long-term prospects. Led by Dr. Will MacAskill, one of the founders of the Center for Effective Altruism, along with other key figures in the movement, the fund committed to distributing $160 million in grants by early September to various initiatives, including research on pandemic preparedness and economic growth. Around $30 million was allocated to organizations and individuals exploring AI-related issues.
SBF and his team also funded multiple other initiatives aimed at reducing the long-term risks of AI, including a $1.25 million grant to the Alignment Research Center—an organization working to ensure future AI systems remain aligned with human interests and prevent technological "loss of control." They also donated $1.5 million to Cornell University for similar research.
The Future Fund awarded nearly $6 million across three projects related to large language models (LLMs). LLMs are increasingly powerful AI systems capable of writing tweets, emails, blog posts, and even generating computer programs. This funding aimed to reduce the risk of these technologies being used to spread misinformation and minimize unintended or harmful behaviors.
Beyond grants from the Future Fund, SBF and colleagues made direct investments in startups—for example, committing $500 million to Anthropic. Founded in 2021 by a group of effective altruists who left OpenAI, Anthropic aims to enhance AI safety by developing its own language models, a process that can cost tens of millions of dollars.
Between 2021 and 2022, SBF and his FTX colleagues granted or invested over $530 million across more than 70 AI-related companies, academic labs, think tanks, independent projects, and individual researchers to address concerns about the technology.
Besides Solana, SBF Could Have Created Another 'Sui Miracle'
In 2021, when SOL underwent a major unlock event, SBF made his famous statement: "Right now, I’d buy all the SOL you’ve got at $3."
SBF’s investment in Solana was based on its technical strengths. Seen as a competitor to Ethereum, Solana offers higher transaction speeds and lower fees. In a September 2021 interview, SBF described Solana as “one of the few blockchains with long-term potential,” capable of supporting industrial-scale applications. FTX maintained close ties with Solana, and SBF personally held a large amount of SOL, signaling strong confidence.
Sui is a public blockchain founded by Evan Cheng, a former core member of Meta’s (Facebook) Libra project, continuing Libra’s high-performance design philosophy with a focus on speed and scalability. FTX Ventures invested in Mysten Labs—the precursor to Sui—in 2021, acquiring rights to 890 million Sui tokens and equity, totaling approximately $100 million (Sui Blockchain Explained: How It Works and What You Need to Know). SBF likely invested due to Sui’s technical advantages (high throughput, low latency) and team background, similar to his rationale for backing Solana.
Sui launched its mainnet in May 2023. As of May 7, 2025, it boasts a market cap exceeding $11.5 billion, ranking within the top 20 cryptocurrencies globally. Its technical features include high performance (capable of processing tens of thousands of transactions per second), low fees, and the use of the Move programming language to support dynamic assets and complex smart contracts, establishing Sui as a leading high-performance blockchain. By 2025, its TVL (total value locked) reached $1.78 billion, surpassing established chains like Avalanche. With key founding members of Chinese descent, Sui has attracted many Chinese developers, achieving significantly higher development efficiency compared to Western teams, enabling rapid growth in DeFi and gaming ecosystems.
Sui is considered a potential frontrunner among next-generation blockchains, with credibility derived from its founding team’s origins in Meta’s Libra project. Backing from major investors such as a16z, FTX Ventures, and Coinbase Ventures further solidifies its industry standing. With a total supply of 10 billion tokens and a current market cap of around $11.5 billion, the market demonstrates strong confidence in Sui’s future.
Forced to Sell Billions in Gains: Tragic Genius or Naive Optimism?
In early 2025, FTX creditor Sunil Kavuri posted on X stating that SUI reached $5.20 at a $16 billion market cap, meaning the 890 million SUI tokens FTX sold in March 2023 for $96 million would now be worth $4.6 billion. Even though SUI’s price has since dropped to $3.40, those tokens would still be valued at $3 billion.
Several months after filing for bankruptcy, FTX sold back its stake to Sui’s developer, Mysten Labs, in 2023. FTX Ventures had originally acquired this stake, which included equity in Mysten Labs and the right to purchase SUI tokens following a $101 million investment in Mysten Labs’ $300 million Series B round in 2022. This means FTX Ventures sold these holdings at a loss.
Sunil Kavuri’s post prompted renewed reflection on SBF’s investment acumen. Looking back, FTX’s major early bets displayed visionary foresight, but were forced into fire sales due to bankruptcy proceedings—each single asset sale now representing billions in lost upside.
In March 2024, FTX sold roughly two-thirds of its stake in AI startup Anthropic—representing 8% of the company’s total shares—for a total of $884 million. ATIC, a subsidiary of UAE sovereign wealth fund Mubadala, acquired nearly $500 million of that stake. That same stake is now estimated to be worth around $3 billion.
In April 2024, FTX sold up to 30 million SOL at a steep discount of $64 each—totaling about $1.9 billion—representing two-thirds of its total SOL holdings. The move drew attention from giants like Galaxy Trading and Pantera Capital. According to Bloomberg, Galaxy Trading even created a dedicated $620 million fund to acquire FTX’s discounted SOL. At SOL’s current price of $148, this batch of assets would now be valued at approximately $4.4 billion.
On May 6, 2025, the Financial Times reported that Anysphere, the company behind the AI code editor Cursor, secured a $900 million funding round led by Thrive Capital, reaching a $9 billion valuation. FTX was an early seed investor in Cursor, but during bankruptcy liquidation, its trustee sold its entire Cursor stake for just $200,000—shares now worth an estimated $500 million...
During FTX’s liquidation process, over $14 billion in assets—including cash, digital assets, and investments—were recovered. However, details of specific asset sales and their prices remain undisclosed. In hindsight, the total value of "sold-too-soon" assets may easily reach into the tens of billions of dollars.
SBF’s dramatic rise and fall reflects the volatility and fragility inherent in the cryptocurrency industry. From betting on high-performance blockchains to strategic positioning in the AI space, his decisions were consistently driven by the grand narrative of "effective altruism"—yet ultimately collapsed due to inadequate risk controls and ethical ambiguity. Viewed through the lens of SBF’s prescient investment vision, Sui may shine in this cycle much like Solana did in the last, illustrating the industry’s enduring pursuit of technological advancement and wealth creation. As the wheel of innovation continues to turn, new frontiers will inevitably emerge, making the search for high-quality opportunities among emerging products an eternal challenge for investors.
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