FTX’s multibillion-dollar cryptocurrency blowup hasn’t destroyed all faith in the industry.
In a new documentary premiering Monday, FTX customers, insiders and investors tell CNBC that despite not receiving a single dollar worth of cryptocurrency back, they’re optimistic on the industry and plan to keep investing.
Evan Luthra, an app developer, entrepreneur and angel investor, told CNBC he lost $2 million dollars in the collapse of FTX. Luthra said he knew when FTX filed for bankruptcy in late 2022 that he wouldn’t have “access to any of this money for the next few years.” He continues to speak at crypto conferences
FTX Customer, Evan Luthra, spoke to CNBC in Miami before speaking at a crypto conference.
CNBC
“I do want everybody to understand that the mistake here was not bitcoin, the mistake was not crypto,” Luthra said. “The fundamental reason why we buy bitcoin, why we use bitcoin has not changed.”
Luthra said his hefty loss on FTX hasn’t shaken his bitcoin bullishness.
“I know it’s going to end up at over $100,000 sooner or later anyways, so for me it’s a great buy,” he said. Bitcoin is currently trading at about $26,900, down from a high of about $69,000 in December 2021.
“All the success is made in the trenches, not when everybody’s already celebrating,” he said.
FTX, once one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world, spiraled into bankruptcy after its swift collapse last year. Shortly after, FTX investigators said they discovered $8.9 billion dollars in customer assets were missing from the exchange.
FTX founder and ex-CEO Sam Bankman-Fried faces seven criminal charges for fraud and violating campaign finance violations. He’s pleaded not guilty to all charges. Jury selection begins in Manhattan on Tuesday.
FTX Founder Sam Bankman-Fried leaves from Manhattan Federal Court after court appearance in New York, United States on June 15, 2023.
Fatih Aktas | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images
At a bankruptcy hearing in April 2022, an attorney for FTX said $7.3 billion dollars in cash and liquid crypto assets had been recovered from the exchange. So far, none of the customers interviewed by CNBC have received any of their money back.
Jake Thacker, an FTX customer in Portland, Oregon, told CNBC he lost hundreds of thousands of dollars shortly after losing his job in the tech industry.
“I’m in quite a big hole right now,” Thacker said. “I’m probably going to have to file for bankruptcy.”
FTX customer, Jake Thacker spoke with CNBC after losing hundreds of thousands of dollars on the exchange.
CNBC
Thacker told CNBC he “would encourage people to still invest in crypto.”
“I probably would give them some different advice at this point,” he said. That advice would come with the warning, “Here’s what I learned, don’t make the same mistakes I did.”
Bhagamshi Kannegundla said he first heard about FTX in an advertisement featuring comedian Larry David that aired during the Super Bowl.
“I was like, oh my goodness, there’s all these big name people utilizing FTX,” Kannegundla said. “So I was like, OK, hey, I think I’ll be safe using this.”
Less than a year later, Kannegundla was out $174,000, representing around 60% of his crypto portfolio, from FTX’s collapsed.
Bhagamshi Kannegundla, an FTX customer, told CNBC he sold his bankruptcy claim to reinvest in crypto.
CNBC
“Based on all the other bankruptcies and everything that happened in the crypto market, I was really, really worried about getting anything back, and then how long I would have to wait,” Kannegundla said.
Instead of waiting for the recoveries to eventually be distributed to FTX customers, Kannegundla went online and found a company that would help him sell his bankruptcy claim for pennies on the dollar to get a little bit of cash more quickly.
Kannegundla said his bankruptcy claim was for $174,000. He received around $19,000 in the sale.
“The buyer was, after all the due diligence and everything, it went down to like 11% of the $174,000,” he said.
Years later, if the FTX bankruptcy process recovers more than the 11 cents on the dollar for his claim, the buyer pockets the difference. Kannegundla said he will have “zero regrets” if that money gets recovered because he has a different strategy.
“I wanted to get the cash from the bankruptcy claim, primarily to invest in crypto again,” he said. “I felt as if there was a good chance for me to make money in the next five to 10 years.”
Kannegundla understands that it may be an odd choice.
“People might think I’m crazy for this,” he said. “After going through the FTX and all these other bankruptcies, why would you want to buy any more crypto?”
He rationalized his decision.
“When you believe in something as far as technology, you will go through it, you know, it’s kind of like the same person who bought like, let’s say Amazon stock,” he said.
Another FTX customer, Sunil Kavuri, who has a background in traditional finance, said he moved his digital assets from rival exchange Binance to FTX because he believed it was a safe place for his money. He pointed to the fact that the company raised money from top venture capital firms Sequoia and Paradigm.
“I thought OK, this is a very safe, institutionally backed exchange,”he said.
Bahamas-based crypto exchange FTX filed for bankruptcy in the U.S. on Nov. 11, 2022, seeking court protection as it looks for a way to return money to users.
Nurphoto | Nurphoto | Getty Images
In an email to CNBC, Kavuri said he hasn’t purchased any crypto since the collapse of FTX because he “wanted to take a break from suffering a massive loss.” Over the last 10 months, he said the majority of his time has been spent fighting “for the rights of all FTX users that lost money due to the FTX bankruptcy.”
“It hasn’t shaken my faith in the underlying asset itself,” Kavuri said. “I think cryptocurrencies generally, it should be here to stay.”
FTX Customer, Sunil Kavuri spoke with CNBC about his multi-million dollar loss after the exchange filed for bankruptcy.
CNBC
Across the industry, crypto still has its believers despite the madness of 2022.
Brett Harrison, the former President of FTX’s U.S. business, said he was blindsided by his parent company’s collapse. But he’s doubling down on cryptocurrencies.
Harrison, who left FTX less than two months before its demise, told CNBC he “had no reason to suspect that FTX wasn’t anything other than extremely profitable and in great shape” prior to his departure.
Brett Harrison, the Former President of FTX US left the company less than two months before it’s collapse.
CNBC
Speaking about his plan to move forward, Harrison said he’s been raising money to start a new company in the space called Architect Financial Technologies.
“I’d really like to build a technology and a tech-forward brokerage that allows people to trade seamlessly and easily in digital assets and any kind of other tokenized products in addition to other asset classes,” Harrison said.
Anthony Scaramucci, founder of Skybridge Capital, said he felt like he was late to the game. He didn’t make his first bitcoin investment until October 2020. He later started Skybridge to focus on digital assets.
Anthony Scaramucci, the founder of Skybridge Capital, spoke with CNBC at his office in New York.
CNBC
Scaramucci told CNBC he “was building a close relationship with Bankman-Fried” and felt “betrayed and disappointed” when FTX collapsed after making a $10 million dollar investment in the exchange’s FTT token.
He said he still sees “a very strong bull case for Web 3,” referring to broad technologies surrounding crypto and the prospective future of a distributed internet.
“You got to be patient” he said. “If you’re going to go through a period of fraud, and fraudsters and over leverage, you have to see it to the other side.”
Apple’s latest iPhone models are shown on display at its Regent Street, London store on the launch day of the iPhone 17.
Arjun Kharpal | CNBC
Apple will hit a record level of iPhone shipments this year driven by its latest models and a resurgence in its key market of China, research firm IDC has forecast.
The company will ship 247.4 million iPhones in 2025, up just over 6% year-on-year, IDC forecast in a report on Tuesday. That’s more than the 236 million it sold in 2021, when the iPhone 13 was released.
Apple’s predicted surge is “thanks to the phenomenal success of its latest iPhone 17 series,” Nabila Popal, senior research director at IDC, said in a statement, adding that in China, “massive demand for iPhone 17 has significantly accelerated Apple’s performance.”
Shipments are a term used by analysts to refer to the number of devices sent by a vendor to its sales channels like e-commerce partners or stores. They do not directly equate to sales but indicate the demand expected by a company for their products.
When it launched in September, investors saw the iPhone 17 series as a key set of devices for Apple, which was facing increased competition in China and questions about its artificial intelligence strategy, as Android rivals were powering on.
Apple’s shipments are expected to jump 17% year-on-year in China in the fourth quarter, IDC said, leading the research firm to forecast 3% growth in the market this year versus a previous projection of a 1% decline.
IDC’s report follows on from Counterpoint Research last week which forecast Apple to ship more smartphones than Samsung in 2025 for the first time in 14 years.
Bloomberg reported last month that Apple could delay the release of the base model of its next device, the iPhone 18, until 2027, which would break its regular cycle of releasing all of its phones in fall each year. IDC said this could mean Apple’s shipments may drop by 4.2% next year.
Anthropic, the AI startup behind the popular Claude chatbot, is in early talks to launch one of the largest initial public offerings as early as next year, the Financial Times reported Wednesday.
For the potential IPO, Anthropic has engaged law firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, which has previously worked on high-profile tech IPOs such as Google, LinkedIn and Lyft, the FT said, citing two sources familiar with the matter.
The start-up, led by chief executive Dario Amodei, was also pursuing a private funding round that could value it above $300 billion, including a $15 billion combined commitment from Microsoft and Nvidia, per the report.
It added that Anthropic has also discussed a potential IPO with major investment banks, but that sources characterized the discussions as preliminary and informal.
If true, the news could position Anthropic in a race to market with rival ChatGPT-maker OpenAI, which is also reportedly laying the groundwork for a public offering. The potential listings would also test investors’ appetite for loss-making AI startups amid growing fears of a so-called AI bubble.
However, an Anthropic spokesperson told the FT: “It’s fairly standard practice for companies operating at our scale and revenue level to effectively operate as if they are publicly traded companies,” adding that no decisions have been made on timing or whether to go public.
CNBC was unable to reach Anthropic and Wilson Sonsini, which has advised Anthropic for a few years, for comment.
According to one of the FT’s sources, Anthropic has been working through internal preparations for a potential listing, though details were not provided.
CNBC also reported last month that Anthropic was recently valued to the range of $350 billion after receiving investments of up to $5 billion from Microsoft and $10 billion from Nvidia.
According to the FT report, investors in the company are enthusiastic about Anthropic’s potential IPO, which could see it “seize the initiative” from OpenAI.
While OpenAI has been rumoured to be considering an IPO, its chief financial officer recently said the company is not pursuing a near-term listing, even as it closed a $6.6 billion share sale at a $500 billion valuation in October.
CrowdStrike on Tuesday evening reported better-than-expected fiscal 2026 third-quarter results and forward guidance. The numbers, however, were not enough to power shares higher, given their roughly 24% advance since the cybersecurity company’s fiscal second-quarter print back in late August. That said, the latest beat and raise should help solidify recent stock gains and set the stage for further upside next year. Revenue in fiscal Q3 increased 22% year over year to $1.23 billion, beating the consensus estimate of $1.22 billion, compiled by market data provider LSEG. Adjusted earnings per share (EPS) increased to 96 cents in the three months ending Oct. 31, beating the 94-cent estimate, according to LSEG. Why we own it Cybersecurity is a must-have for companies in the digital age. Led by co-founder and CEO George Kurtz, CrowdStrike is one of the best there is, along with fellow Club name Palo Alto Networks . The company specializes in endpoint protection through its AI-native platform called Falcon. Competitors: Palo Alto Networks, Fortinet , SentinelOne , Microsoft Portfolio weighting: 3.33% Most recent buy: March 10, 2025 Initiation date: Oct. 16, 2024 Bottom Line The October quarter was an encore performance from CrowdStrike — delivering better-than-expected results across the board, with record-high operating cash flow, adjusted operating income, EPS, free cash flow, and net new annual recurring revenue. The Falcon Flex subscription model is clearly helping to drive more business, with annual recurring revenue (ARR) tied to these accounts surging more than 200% versus the year-ago period. Falcon Flex allows customers to quickly deploy additional protection as needed, without all the red tape of going through the often-lengthy procurement process. Artificial intelligence benefits CrowdStrike in two ways: by increasing attack vectors in its customers’ digital infrastructure, resulting in more demand, and by strengthening CrowdStrike’s ability to protect customers against these attacks, resulting in more pricing power and cross-selling. As CEO George Kurtz said on the post-earnings conference call, “Businesses every day are having jarring lightbulb moments, witnessing AI-powered adversarial tradecraft firsthand. … Now, just as anyone can use AI to vibe code and become a software engineer, anyone can also now vibe hack, becoming a sophisticated adversary with AI.” He added that CrowdStrike is mission-critical. “No matter how the market swings, geopolitical tensions evolve, or what technologies are in vogue, our digital society mandates cybersecurity as a necessity, and now, more than ever, synonymous with that, CrowdStrike is a necessity.” CRWD YTD mountain CrowdStrike YTD This speaks to the nature of demand for CrowdStrike and other cybersecurity companies, such as fellow Club name Palo Alto Networks , and what these companies can provide in an all-encompassing, platform approach to digital protection. With attacks becoming more sophisticated and more frequent, companies can no longer afford to have a fragmented solution to cybersecurity. Kurtz said, “Cybersecurity in the agentic era demands a single platform. The criticality in being able to operate with agility, efficacy, and speed to stop breaches is having the data that controls and the actions in a single platform, not multiple platforms. Because when you have multiple platforms, by definition, you don’t have a platform. Tap switching and contact switching cost time. Data stitching doesn’t scale. These are the seams and cracks where adversaries thrive.” Kurtz’s comment about the “agentic era” refers to digital AI agents that can perform complex tasks and problem-solve with little to no human oversight. The proliferation of AI agents exponentially increases the ways hackers can breach systems. In mid-September, at CrowdStrike’s Fal.Con industry conference , the CEO described the rise of agentic AI as a “greater than 100x opportunity for CrowdStrike.” Given the fiscal third-quarter results, strong outlook, and our longer-term view that cybersecurity is a secular growth industry, now benefiting from the need to defend against AI-equipped hackers, using AI protection tools, we’re reiterating our 1 rating and increasing our CrowdStrike price target to $550 per share from $520. While falling 3% in after-hours trading, CrowdStrike shares were up 51% as of Tuesday’s market close. The stock is the Club’s fourth-best performer of 2025. Quarterly commentary Perhaps the most exciting metric, as it indicates the sustainability of the strength we saw in Tuesday night’s results, is net new annual recurring revenue, which came in at $265 million. That resulted in ARR at the end of the period of $4.92 billion, up 23% year over year and up 5.7% sequentially. Helping to drive that growth was Falcon Flex, with management noting that nearly 30% of ending ARR, or $1.35 billion, came from accounts that have adopted the new pricing model. On the call, Kurtz said the number of customers “reflexing,” or re-signing once their credits are used up, more than doubled sequentially, to more than 200 — with 10 customers “reflexing more than 2x their initial flex subscription.” Given the strong response, management expects the Falcon Flex model to become the company’s licensing standard. Guidance For full-year fiscal 2026, CrowdStrike management raised its outlook at the midpoint. The team now expects to realize revenue of between $4.7966 billion and $4.0866 billion, up from the prior range of between $4.7495 billion and $4.8055 billion. That compares to the LSEG consensus estimate of $4.784 billion. The adjusted earnings outlook was also raised, with the team now targeting an EPS range of $3.70 and $3.72, up from the prior $3.60 to $3.72, and comfortably ahead of the $3.67 estimate from LSEG. For its 2026 fiscal fourth quarter, the current quarter going on right now, management guided for revenue to be between $1.29 billion and $1.3 billion, which is better than the $1.293 billion the Street was looking for at the midpoint, according to LSEG. Adjusted EPS are expected to be between $1.09 and $1.11, better than the $1.08 the Street was looking for. (Jim Cramer’s Charitable Trust is long CRWD, PANW. See here for a full list of the stocks.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust’s portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB. NO SPECIFIC OUTCOME OR PROFIT IS GUARANTEED.
