Mysten Labs buys back stake from FTX for $96 million

Layer 1s • April 14, 2023, 3:29PM EDT

Quick Take

Mysten Labs paid $96 million to repurchase FTX’s equity stake and right to purchase Sui tokens.
FTX invested in Mysten Labs less than a year ago.
The repurchase was approved by U.S. Bankruptcy Court.

Mysten Labs, creator of the Layer 1 blockchain Sui, has repurchased an equity stake bought by FTX less than a year ago.

The total buyback price of $96 million also includes “all of FTX’s warrant rights to purchase Sui tokens,” Mysten said in a statement. The Sui blockchain, developed at Meta, has garnered a significant amount of interest from investors. Since late 2021, the company has raised a total of $336 million, according to The Block Pro's Deals Dashboard.

FTX's investment in Mysten was part of a $300 million Series B funding round from September 2022, according to the statement.

“We are very pleased to close this transaction, which speaks to the tremendous confidence we have in our capabilities, technology and partnerships,” said Mysten Labs Co-Founder and CEO Evan Cheng.

The buyback was part of FTX’s bankruptcy proceedings, according to Mysten.

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.

About Author

RT Watson is a senior reporter at The Block who covers a wide array of topics including U.S.-based companies, blockchain gaming and NFTs. Formerly covered entertainment at The Wall Street Journal, where he wrote about Disney, Netflix, Warner Bros. and the creator economy while focusing primarily on technological disruption across media. Previous to that he covered corporate, economic and political news in Brazil while at Bloomberg. RT has interviewed a diverse cast of characters including CEOs, media moguls, top influencers, politicians, blue-collar workers, drug traffickers and convicted criminals. Holds a master's degree in Digital Sociology.