On behalf of Sino’s Liquid Value fund, which was launched in collaboration with Sam Bankman-Fried in 2021, Matthew Graham’s Sino Global Capital filed a $67.3 million claim against FTX Trading Ltd.
The fund primarily targeted high net worth individuals and had a $200 million fundraising goal. This strategy was novel for Sino because it was the first time the company looked to a formal fund vehicle for outside funding.
A slide deck used in marketing materials for the fund portrayed FTX as a “co-GP and anchor LP” with the potential to unleash “significant strategic value” by being exposed to Bankman-Fried’s token universe. The fund has already amassed $90 million as of January 2022, with FTX serving as an anchor investor.
Sino Global initially claimed that its “direct exposure to the FTX exchange was confined to mid-seven figures held in custody.”
According to SEC documents dating back to 2022, Bankman-Fried, Alameda Research’s subsidiary Alameda Ventures, and Graham were all identified as indirect investors in the fund.
Although the fund is still functioning with the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority as of 2023, it is no longer registered with the SEC.
In the past, a Sino Global representative told CoinDesk that infrastructure and gaming had received a lot of the fund’s investment attention.
Sino issued a statement shortly after FTX’s demise in which it stated that it “trusted FTX to be a good actor committed to pushing the industry forward.” “We regret that betrayed trust very much.”
Constance Wang, a former COO of FTX who was once referred to as Bankman-Fried’s “right hand” in his fundraising campaign, was appointed by Sino Global as its head of gaming in mid-July.