The bankruptcy of FTX’s grant program, the FTX Future Fund, deprived researchers at universities of the funds they had been promised.
The bankruptcy of the FTX exchange and its subsidiaries also led to the closure of its grant program, the FTX Future Fund. The philanthropy arm had pledged $1 billion to research academics at prestigious universities in 2022.
13 Million Dollars Grant Distributed
Numerous academics and researchers, who were the first recipients of the grant distributed by the FTX Future Fund, were caught in the middle of uncertainty.
According to the report published by Reuters, many PhD students studying with the FTX grant dropped out of the course due to fears of repayment. The focus of the grant program was research projects on topics such as the safe development of artificial intelligence, reducing the risk of biological disasters, improving institutions, economic growth and great power relations.
According to the report, a total of 20 academics from prestigious universities including Cornell, Princeton, Brown and Cambridge received more than $100,000 in grants. Calculations say that university-affiliated research initiatives have received more than $13 million in grants in total.
FTX announced in a press release on Feb. 5 that it is asking buyers who receive payments from debtors to return their money by the end of the month, and if they don’t, it can take legal action against the buyers. However, no reference was made to the FTX Future Fund in the statement.