Sam Bankman-Fried would have made nearly $40bn in Anthropic IPO

Anthropic is one of the best-known AI labs in the market, and Sam Bankman-Fried’s name is still attached to an early, now highly consequential investment in it. The reporting places that investment in 2021, when Alameda Research Ventures bought into the company before its current scale and public-market debut. With Anthropic heading toward a Nasdaq listing, the old crypto-to-AI crossover is back in view.

For people who hold crypto-related claims through bankrupt or encumbered entities, this is a reminder that legacy bets can still matter long after the original firm has collapsed. Bankman-Fried is in prison, but the investment record tied to Alameda still tracks a possible windfall that he will not personally receive. That contrast between a jailed founder and a coming AI listing shows how unrealized gains can outlive the companies that made them.

The bigger issue is how capital from the 2021 crypto boom flowed into adjacent technology bets, some of which are now being repriced in public markets. Anthropic’s debut also puts a spotlight on how early private stakes can become enormous on paper without changing the fact that the original investor may be unable to access them. The tension is between private-market scale and public-market realization, and this case puts both in the same frame.

Still open is how the Anthropic listing will be priced and what the final public-market valuation will be next week. It also remains unclear from these reports how any proceeds linked to the Alameda stake would be distributed, or whether any separate legal process will affect that outcome. A final answer would require the completed IPO terms and any relevant court or bankruptcy handling of the asset.

The total crypto market fell 1.3% in the 4 hours after the first headline, after a flat 2 hours before.

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