Temasek, Singapore's state investment giant that has over $400 billion in assets under management, says direct crypto investment is still "off the table," four years after writing down its $275 million bet on FTX.
- "We don't have directly any, any investment in crypto. I can't forecast what happens in the future, and the role that crypto is going to play in the main economy, depending on the different regulations that might happen," Nagi Hamiyeh, president of Temasek Global Investments, told CNBC on Thursday, July 9.
Temasek wrote down its entire $275 million investment in FTX in 2022 after Sam Bankman-Fried's crypto exchange collapsed. The investment included $210 million for a 1% stake in FTX International and $65 million for 1.5% of FTX US, the American subsidiary of the global FTX platform.
- At the time, Lawrence Wong, then Singapore's deputy prime minister and finance minister, called the loss disappointing and damaging to the country's reputation.
Blockchain infra can stay
But Hamiyeh still left a small door open for blockchain infrastructure, saying Temasek is focused on what blockchain can do for the real economy, rather than direct crypto exposure.
As Reuters reported, the fund wants to lift its AI exposure to as much as 15% of its portfolio by 2031, up from 6% now, while its net portfolio value reached a record S$518 billion, or about $400 billion.
The fund is also moving money into areas that look less exposed to pure software hype. To reach that goal, Temasek wants to increase private credit to 5% of its portfolio by 2031 from 2%, and core-plus infrastructure to 5% from 1%.
- In mid-June, Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of FTX, lost his appeal to overturn his fraud conviction and 25-year prison sentence, leaving a Trump pardon bid as one of his few remaining paths out, The Coinformer reported.
- Bankman-Fried was convicted by a federal jury in Manhattan in 2023 on seven felony charges tied to the exchange's 2022 implosion.
- Prosecutors said he stole $8 billion from FTX customers to cover losses at Alameda Research, his crypto-focused hedge fund, in what they called a "fraud of epic proportions."