Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Writes Down $95M FTX Investment

The Ontario Teachers Pension Plan (OTPP), one of the third largest investment funds in Canada, announced Friday that it would liquidate its entire position in the beleaguered crypto exchange FTX. The company disclosed that it made two separate investments in the exchange through its Teachers’ Venture Growth (TVG) platform with other institutional investors. 

OTPP Invested $95M in FTX

The teacher’s investment fund invested  $75 million directly to FTX and its United States subsidiary FTX.US through a series B funding round. The fundraiser accelerated the company’s valuation to $25 billion before peaking at $32 billion in 2022.

Earlier this year, the investment fund also participated in another fundraising in January and contributed $20 million to FTX.US, which boosted the exchange’s valuation to around $8 billion.

The combined investments represent a minority percentage of its TVG portfolio, which the company uses to gain exposure to emerging economies such as the crypto industry. 

OTTP said the investments only accounted for less than 0.05% of its total net assets, equating to the ownership of 0.4% and 0.5% of FTX international and FTX.US, respectively.

OTPP Writes Down its FTX Investments to Zero

Due to the FTX implosion, the Canadian investment fund said it would write down the entire $95 million it invested with the exchange next month. 

“We will be writing down our investment in FTX to zero at our year end. The financial loss from this investment will have limited impact on the Plan, given its size relative to our total net assets and our strong financial position. However, we are disappointed with the outcome of this investment, take all losses seriously and will use this experience to further strengthen our approach,” the company said. 

The latest development confirmed earlier speculation that the teacher’s investment fund suffered massive exposure to the FTX collapse. The company said it supports the government’s efforts to review the risks and causes of the exchange’s breakdown. 

Meanwhile, OTTP is one of the many companies to write down their investments on FTX. 

On November 11, venture capital firm Sequoia Capital said it would mark down to zero its $214 million investment in the struggling exchange.