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FTX’s LedgerX attracts buying interest: sources
LedgerX LLC, one of the few solvent pieces of FTX Group cofounder Sam Bankman-Fried’s crumbled conglomerate, is for sale and attracting interest from would-be buyers including cryptocurrency giants Blockchain Ltd and Gemini Trust Co, people familiar with the matter said.
The unit, which is registered with the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) as a derivatives exchange, was a cornerstone of Bankman-Fried’s efforts in Washington. It is also considered one of the most valuable assets associated with FTX after more than 100 other entities filed for bankruptcy.
New FTX CEO John Ray and restructuring advisers have been poring over the company’s books in search of cash, cryptocurrency and assets that could be sold to help repay creditors.
Photo: Bloomberg
It is unclear how much LedgerX, which had about US$303 million in cash as of a Nov. 17 filing, might fetch in a sale.
In addition to Blockchain and Gemini, cryptocurrency exchange Bitpanda GmbH and event contracts trading platform Kalshi Inc, which is also registered with the CFTC and uses LedgerX to clear trades, have expressed interest, the people said.
There are about half a dozen other potential buyers and more could be added, one of the people said.
Representatives for LedgerX, FTX, Blockchain, Gemini and Kalshi did not respond to requests for comment.
Bitpanda chief executive officer Eric Demuth said the firm was not interested or considering the purchase.
In a sign that talks are becoming more serious, at least some of the parties have signed nondisclosure agreements, some of the people said.
After FTX US purchased it last year, LedgerX sought approval for a controversial plan to clear crypto derivatives trades without intermediaries.
The firm withdrew its application with the CFTC as the corporate group of companies filed for bankruptcy.
As early as Wednesday, LedgerX planned to make US$175 million available for use in FTX’s bankruptcy proceedings from a US$250 million fund the company set aside as part of that application.
CFTC Chairman Rostin Behnam previously told US lawmakers that his agency is in daily communication with LedgerX amid the FTX turmoil.
However, the potential sale was not discussed, Behnam said.
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Flying car by California startup Alef attracts early Tesla investor
Oct 19 (Reuters) – The concept of a flying car is not new – inventors have been trying to add wings to wheeled motor vehicles for decades, with only limited success.
Jim Dukhovny, founder of Alef Aeronautics, hopes to change that equation. His California-based firm has come up with a novel approach to moving terrestrial vehicles into the skies and has attracted at least one prominent venture capitalist.
Alef’s Model A, which is just emerging from a seven-year gestation period, looks less like the flying cars in old movies and more like Bruce Willis’ flying taxi in the 1997 film “The Fifth Element.”
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The unusual appearance – which features a body that flips on its side to become the wing after lift-off – is just one aspect that attracted Tim Draper, an early investor in Elon Musk’s Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) and SpaceX whose Draper Associates Fund V has backed Alef with $3 million in seed money.
After Draper had made a modest initial investment, “I put more (money in) when I saw that they had created a small drone prototype that did exactly what they told me it would do,” he said in an email. “The design is extraordinary. The sides of the car become the wings when the plane goes horizontal.”
Based in Santa Clara in the heart of Silicon Valley, Alef has designed the Model A – a swoopy yet relatively conventional-looking electric car – with the ability to take off and land vertically. And of course, to fly.
Dukhovny, who is Alef’s CEO, has never built a car until now. He is a computer scientist, software designer, science-fiction buff and serial entrepreneur who once ran an online gaming site called Intellectual Casino.
In an interview, he said the hand-built Model A is designed to sell for $300,000, with production and initial deliveries slated in 2025. That price tag, by the way, is the same starting price planned for the Cadillac brand’s electric-vehicle flagship, the Celestiq, which should start arriving for customers in early 2024, according to Cadillac parent General Motors Co (GM.N).
One feature that sets the Model A apart from earlier versions of flying cars is how it flies. Once it lifts off the ground, the cockpit swivels and the carbon-fiber body turns over on its side, then moves forward, driven by an array of propellers. Most other recent attempts by competitors resemble giant drones – and are not capable of wheeled travel on the ground.
“The whole car is the wing,” said Dukhovny.
Alef estimates a driving range of 200 miles (322 km) and a flight range of 100 miles.
Dukhovny has an even bigger trick up his sleeve for 2030: A proposed Model Z sedan, with a flight range of 200 miles and a driving range of 400 miles – and a projected price tag of $35,000.
“This is not more complicated than a Toyota Corolla,” he said. “Our goal is to make sure it has the same price point.”
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Reporting by Paul Lienert in Detroit
Editing by Matthew Lewis
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
U.S. offshore wind auction attracts record-setting bids
Feb 23 (Reuters) – The largest ever U.S. sale of offshore wind development rights – for areas off the coasts of New York and New Jersey – attracted record-setting bids on Wednesday from companies seeking to be a part of President Joe Biden’s plan to create a booming new domestic industry.
It is the first offshore wind lease sale under Biden, who has made expansion of offshore wind a cornerstone of his strategy to address global warming and decarbonize the U.S. electricity grid by 2035, all while creating thousands of jobs.
With bidding still underway, the auction was on track to easily top the $405 million U.S. offshore wind auction record set in 2018, according to updates posted on the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s (BOEM) web site.
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After 11 rounds, bidding stood at a record-setting $250 million for a single lease 32 miles (51.5 km) off the coast of New Jersey. The government had identified that 114-acre area – the largest offered in the sale – as being capable of producing power for more than 485,000 homes.
The previous record amount paid for a U.S. offshore wind lease was $135.1 million in 2018 for a lease off the coast of Massachusetts.
High bids on each of the other five areas in the auction ranged between $12.6 million and $134.3 million as of Wednesday afternoon.
The auction’s scale marks a major step forward for offshore wind power in the United States, which has lagged European nations in developing the technology. Currently, the United States has just two small offshore wind facilities, off the coasts of Rhode Island and Virginia, along with two additional commercial-scale projects recently approved for development.
BOEM, which has not held an auction for wind leases since 2018, is offering 488,201 acres (197,568 hectares) in shallow waters between New York’s Long Island and New Jersey, an area known as the New York Bight.
The area is 22% smaller than what was initially proposed last summer due to concerns about the developments’ impact to commercial fishing and military interests.
‘ENOUGH WIND TO POWER MILLIONS OF HOMES’
The sale’s 25 approved bidders include entities controlled by Equinor ASA (EQNR.OL), Avangrid Inc (AGR.N), BP Plc and Eletricite de France SA (EDF.PA), according to government documents. Each bidder may only win one lease.
The energy generated from the newly offered areas could one day power nearly 2 million homes, the administration has said.
Last year, the Biden administration set a goal of installing 30 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind by 2030 along the nation’s coastlines. Much of the current development is happening in waters off of Northeastern states.
New York and New Jersey have set targets of building more than 16 GW of offshore wind by 2035, and Wednesday’s lease areas – which lie between 20 and 69 nautical miles off the coast, according to BOEM – could deliver more than a third of that capacity.
“That’s enough wind to power millions of homes,” Ed Potosnak, executive director of the New Jersey League of Conservation Voters, said in an interview. “That’s a big deal in a state with about nine million people.”
Not everyone supports offshore wind development. The Biden administration’s ambitions have stoked concerns among commercial fishermen and coastal communities about harm to their livelihoods and property values.
In January, a group of New Jersey residents sued BOEM over its leasing plans for the New York Bight. The group, from the summer colony of Long Beach Island, is concerned about the aesthetic impacts of the turbines and potential lost tourism.
Greg Cudnik, owner of a fishing charter boat business on Long Beach Island, worries about what thousands of wind turbines will do to the ocean habitat.
“For all this that’s taking place and all this that is put in jeopardy, to me, I don’t see the net benefit,” Cudnik said.
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Reporting by Nichola Groom in Los Angeles and Christine Kiernan in Ship Bottom, New Jersey; Editing by Bill Berkrot
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.