LayerZero Labs announced an agreement to buy out 100% of FTX Ventures’ and Alameda Research’s equity position, including token warrants and all agreements between the parties.
In March, the protocol raised $135 million in a funding round co-led by FTX Ventures, bringing the startup’s valuation to $1 billion. Other investors in the round included Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia, Coinbase Ventures and PayPal Ventures.
The agreement also included the purchase of the STG tokens Alameda had acquired from its community auction. According to LayerZero, a proposal will be submitted to transfer the tokens to the Stargate Foundation and “let the community decide what to do with them.”
FTX Ventures participated in the STG launch and bought all the tokens, as Sam Trabuco, CEO at Alameda, explained in a Twitter thread in March. The tokens were later released as a spot-based product.
LayerZero claimed to possess $107 million in cash, along with the equivalent of $27 million in on-chain funds, with around 90% in stablecoins, coming for a total of $134 million. In addition, the startup had $11.5 million on FTX that was being used for operational purposes but said it now considers it a balance of zero.
Sam Bankman-Fried revealed the FTX crisis on Nov. 8 by announcing Binance’s intention to acquire the crypto exchange amid a “liquidity crunch.” In a Twitter thread published on Nov. 10, he also confirmed that Alameda was “winding down trading” but assured users that the United States-based FTX US “was not financially impacted” by recent events.
