Anthropic Shares From FTX Case Could Be Worth Billions

TLDR

Table of Contents

Caroline Ellison and Nishad Singh invested a combined $50 million in Anthropic during its 2022 Series B round.
Federal courts finalized forfeiture orders in 2025, transferring their Anthropic shares to the US government.
Business Insider reports the US Marshals Service sold the combined holdings to existing Anthropic investors sometime in 2025.
Analysts estimate the shares could now be worth between $2.62 billion and $5.03 billion based on Anthropic’s latest valuation.
FTX victims have not received identified proceeds from the sale as of June 2026.

The US Marshals Service sold Anthropic shares once owned by former FTX executives Caroline Ellison and Nishad Singh sometime during 2025. Business Insider reported the sale on August 31, citing a person familiar with the transaction.

Ellison and Singh bought the shares in 2022 during Anthropic’s Series B financing round. Together they invested $50 million, with Singh putting in $40 million and Ellison contributing $10 million.

Neither the Marshals Service nor Anthropic has confirmed the sale publicly. No auction record, court filing, or official statement has identified the buyers or the sale price.

How the shares were forfeited

Ellison and Singh both pleaded guilty to criminal charges tied to the collapse of FTX and Alameda Research. They cooperated with prosecutors and testified against FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried during his trial.

A jury convicted Bankman-Fried of fraud and money laundering in November 2023. A federal judge sentenced him to 25 years in prison in March 2024.

U.S. Government Sold Anthropic Stakes in 2025 That Former FTX Executives Bought Cheaply in 2022

According to Business Insider, the U.S. government seized Anthropic shares held by former FTX executives Caroline Ellison and Nishad Singh and sold them to existing investors in… pic.twitter.com/L8Bx3f0KGh

— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) August 31, 2026

Courts finalized Ellison’s forfeiture order in February 2025. It covered Series B preferred shares she acquired through an agreement purchased for $10 million in March 2022.

The government obtained Singh’s shares through a separate order in April 2025. His attorney said Singh bought the shares before joining the conspiracy and may have had a legitimate legal claim to them.

Singh still gave up the shares as part of his plea deal. His attorney told Business Insider that Singh wanted the proceeds to reach FTX victims quickly.

What the shares could be worth now

Business Insider reported that the Marshals Service sold the combined holdings to existing Anthropic investors during 2025. The exact date, buyers, and price were not disclosed.

Anthropic’s valuation climbed sharply during this period. The company was valued at $61.5 billion in March 2025, then reached $380 billion in early 2026.

Anthropic announced a $65 billion Series H round in May 2026 at a $965 billion valuation. It said its annualized revenue had passed $47 billion.

UCLA professor Olav Sorenson estimated the shares were worth between $300 million and $1.1 billion at the time of sale. PitchBook analyst Harrison Rolfes gave a lower range of $250 million to $630 million.

Using Anthropic’s May 2026 valuation, Sorenson estimated the shares would now be worth between $4.17 billion and $5.03 billion. Rolfes put the current figure closer to $2.62 billion.

The wide gap between estimates reflects uncertainty over dilution, share terms, and the exact number of shares involved. These are outside estimates, not figures confirmed by Anthropic or the government.

This sale is separate from the FTX bankruptcy estate’s own liquidation of Bankman-Fried’s Anthropic shares. That estate sold its remaining shares for $452 million in June 2024, bringing its total from Anthropic holdings to about $1.3 billion.

Prosecutors have said forfeited assets could reach victims through a remission process handled by the Justice Department. Business Insider found no evidence that proceeds tied specifically to Ellison and Singh’s shares had reached the bankruptcy estate by the end of June 2026.

The estate received $638 million from government-controlled assets in 2025, mostly from Robinhood shares linked to Bankman-Fried. It expects roughly $400 million more, though it has not listed the Anthropic sale as part of that amount.

The Marshals Service declined to discuss the transaction. A Justice Department representative said sale and compensation details remain confidential while the matter is still ongoing.

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