Sequoia has marked its investment in FTX down to $0

I actually talked to Sam for a bit in the &quot;early days&quot; and he always seemed like an OK guy. Approachable and &quot;honest&quot; which makes this all the worse... I kept asking &quot;why start an exchange when you&#x27;re killing it with Alameda?&quot; and his response seemed to consistently be about wanting to make a better product and legitimize crypto... ugh, don&#x27;t even know what to think now... if that was all a front.<p>It&#x27;s really odd to think because its always &quot;some guy in the news&quot; that gets bad press and demonized (not unjustly), never really someone you &quot;know of.&quot; (prob a lot of ppl w&#x2F;that experience hanging around HN tho, lol)<p>It&#x27;s just weird feelings but mostly just &quot;wtf man.&quot;

This piece will forever be on their site, however: [0].<p>[0] - <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.sequoiacap.com&#x2F;article&#x2F;sam-bankman-fried-spotlight&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.sequoiacap.com&#x2F;article&#x2F;sam-bankman-fried-spotlig...</a>

$0. That sounds about right.<p>Wow.. I think Mr. Bankman&#x27;s wealth was $100 billion in Jan 2022 according to a Fortune estimate. I wonder what would have happened had CZ not made that tweet. Hmm...makes you wonder who profited from all of this. Imagine if binance bought puts on BTC before this announcement.

Given Sam Bankman-Fried&#x27;s relation to effective altruism, it&#x27;s also interesting to read how the EA community is responding to this. For example:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;forum.effectivealtruism.org&#x2F;posts&#x2F;tdLRvYHpfYjimwhyL&#x2F;ftx-com-bought-out-by-binance" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;forum.effectivealtruism.org&#x2F;posts&#x2F;tdLRvYHpfYjimwhyL&#x2F;...</a><p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;forum.effectivealtruism.org&#x2F;posts&#x2F;yjGye7Q2jRG3jNfi2&#x2F;ftx-will-probably-be-sold-at-a-steep-discount-this-is-bad" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;forum.effectivealtruism.org&#x2F;posts&#x2F;yjGye7Q2jRG3jNfi2&#x2F;...</a>

So their cost basis was $150mm. What was the highest valuation FTX was marked at? I&#x27;m curious what the real change in value was for this fund.

This makes me wonder, is Sequoia as good as they once were?<p>Or are they now completely different?

Am I the only who feels like these stories are the Boogie Nights of the 2020s?<p>Unreal.

The fund remains in good shape. It has a gym subscription with two hours personal training per week, and it regularly participates in marathons and Iron Man events.

From a linked article, a quote that basically describes the Federal Reserve<p>&gt;It’s almost as if SBF found a way to hack the financial system, printing billions of dollars out of thin air against which he was able to borrow massive sums from unknown counterparties. Almost as if he discovered a financial perpetual motion machine…

So much FUD around this event. FTX is fine, they have a stadium and other high profile sponsorships.