Singapore government-owned investment fund Temasek has written off its $275 million investment in FTX International and FTX US. It publicly shared quite a bit of detail about its investment and due diligence, as well as its position on blockchain and cryptocurrency.
The FTX investment made up less than a tenth of 1 % of its S$403 billion ($293bn) portfolio.
Given the Singapore regulator MAS’s conservative position on cryptocurrency, Temasek emphasized that it has no direct exposure to cryptocurrencies.
It says its blockchain investment activity focuses on financial market service providers and technology infrastructure. The latter includes protocols, wallets, developer tools, cross-chain messaging, metaverse and gaming infrastructure.
Apart from FTX, its investment in financial service providers has included institutional platforms such as digital securities platforms ADDX and Marketnode, and Partior, the multi-currency payment tech firm backed by JP Morgan, DBS and Standard Chartered. Its technology and web3 investments have included ConsenSys, scaling solution Immutable, and metaverse and gaming company Animoca Brands.
Temasek said, “It is apparent from this investment that perhaps our belief in the actions, judgment and leadership of Sam Bankman-Fried, formed from our interactions with him and views expressed in our discussions with others, would appear to have been misplaced.”
What could be better for the web3 or blockchain sector is its view about the risks.
“We continue to recognise the potential of blockchain applications and decentralised technologies to transform sectors and create a more connected world. But recent events have demonstrated what we have identified previously – the nascency of the blockchain and crypto industry and the innumerable opportunities as well as significant risks involved.”
On top of the FTX fiasco, the ASX announced it was pausing its DLT project for post-trade settlement after investing $169 million since 2016.
