Ikigai Exec Says ‘Large Majority’ of Crypto Asset Management Firm’s Funds Stuck on FTX

After Kevin Zhou, the co-founder of the hedge fund Galois Capital, revealed half of the firm’s assets were held on FTX, another crypto asset management firm called Ikigai detailed that “a large majority of the hedge fund’s total assets” were stored on FTX. Ikigai chief investment officer, Travis Kling, told the public on Twitter and he said there’s “a lot of uncertainty about what’s going to happen next.”

Another hedge fund has detailed it has lost money from the FTX scandal, according to a Twitter thread published by Ikigai’s chief investment officer Travis Kling. “Unfortunately,” Kling said. “I have some pretty bad news to share. Last week Ikigai was caught up in the FTX collapse. We had a large majority of the hedge fund’s total assets on FTX. By the time we went to withdraw Monday [morning], we got very little out. We’re now stuck alongside everyone else.”

A similar situation happened to the hedge fund Galois Capital, according to the company’s co-founder Kevin Zhou. The Galois co-founder noted that his firm had “roughly half” of the firm’s capital “stuck on FTX.” Kling’s thread published on Nov. 14, 2022, details that Ikigai has been “in constant communication” with the hedge fund’s investors since Monday.

“The amount of support we’ve received has been astonishing given the circumstances, and deeply heartwarming,” Kling remarked. However, Kling further stressed that he wasn’t too pleased with the decisions he made. Kling said:

It was entirely my fault and not anyone else’s. I lost my investors’ money after they put faith in me to manage risk and I am truly sorry for that. I have publicly endorsed FTX many times and I am truly sorry for that. I was wrong.

Galois and Ikigai are not the only companies that have shared exposure to the FTX fallout. Reports show that the crypto venture capital firm Multicoin Capital had $25 million stuck on FTX. Furthermore, Galaxy Digital published its third-quarter earnings report and explained it has an “exposure of approximately $76.8 million of cash and digital assets to FTX.”

The crypto exchange FTX filed for bankruptcy protection in the U.S. on Nov. 11, 2022. The company’s creditors will now have to deal with bankruptcy court proceedings going forward. Galois’s Zhou told his investors that the bankruptcy process may take years.

“Over the coming weeks and months, the timeline and potential recovery for FTX customers will become clearer,” Ikigai’s CIO Kling said. “Right now, it’s really hard to say. At some point, we’ll be able to make a better call on whether Ikigai is going to keep going or just move into winddown mode,” the executive added.

What do you think about the hedge fund Ikigai having funds stuck on FTX? Let us know your thoughts about this subject in the comments section below.