Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan to write down $95 million FTX investment to zero

Quick Take

  • The Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan (OTPP) will write down its investment in FTX and FTX.US to zero, saying it is disappointed with the outcome of this investment. 
  • OTPP had made a $95 million investment in the exchanges. 

The Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan (OTPP), one of the most important pension funds in the world, will write down all of its $95 million investment in FTX and FTX US.

The OTPP had invested the money across two funding rounds, initially invested in October 2021 via a Series B and then again in January via a Series C. The OTPP manages over CAD$221 billion ($165 billion).

Other household names caught up with the FTX collapse in BlackRock, Softbank, and Temasek, which also wrote its investment down to zero.

In an update on Thursday, the pension fund said the investment in FTX reflected its approach to diversification. "Our strategy aims to diversify investments across asset classes, geography, time horizons, and economic outcomes to mitigate risk and enhance returns." 

OTTP will write down its investment to zero at the end of the year. The loss from the investment will have a "limited impact ... given its size relative to our total net assets and our strong financial position."

"However, we are disappointed with the outcome of this investment, take all losses seriously, and will use this experience to further strengthen our approach," the firm said.

Sequoia Capital, the Silicon Valley investment firm, was quick off the mark in writing down its investment to zero on Nov. 9 — it made $213.5 million worth of investments in FTX entities.


Disclaimer: The former CEO and majority shareholder of The Block has disclosed a series of loans from former FTX and Alameda founder Sam Bankman-Fried.

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Adam Morgan is a reporter covering cryptocurrency, financial markets, and economics – anything from price movements, earnings reports, and inflation to the U.S. Federal Reserve interest rate decisions and everything in between. Adam is based in London.

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