Amy Wu Resigns From FTX Ventures as SBF's Crypto Empire Unravels

By Jason Nelson

As the collapse of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange continues to send shockwaves across the industry, Amy Wu, a former partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners, told The Information on Friday that she has resigned from her position with FTX Ventures.

Wu's resignation comes the same day FTX filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, and its founder Sam Bankman-Fried resigned as CEO amid allegations of fraud and the mismanagement of customer funds.

Wu joined FTX in January to lead its venture capital arm, which Bankman-Fried launched that same month with a $2 billion investment. Since then, FTX Ventures has been a part of several multi-million dollar deals.

"When I look at what company could potentially have the most impact in the industry, but then also in the world," Wu told Decrypt at the time. "I think FTX is one of the most impactful that I've had the pleasure of working with."

In March 2022, FTX Ventures invested $100 million in Dave, a financial services app, as part of a deal with crypto exchange FTX US that would enable the platform to begin offering cryptocurrency services.

FTX Ventures has also invested in Bored Ape Yacht Club creator Yuga Labs and games developer Faraway, makers of the Solana-based Mini Royale: Nations.

In September, FTX Ventures invested in SkyBridge Capital, the investment firm led by Anthony Scaramucci, taking a 30% stake in the firm. That same month, FTX Ventures participated in a $54 million fundraise led by Alexis Ohanian's VC firm Seven Seven Six for the popular NFT project Doodles.

Wu has long been a champion for Web3 gaming and NFTs. At Messari Mainnet 2021, she discussed how NFTs and gaming could work together.

"If you have in-game items that are traded as NFT items, either in the closed ecosystem of that gaming publisher or outside of it, you can really deepen the game economy substantially," she told Decrypt. "You have a lot higher volumes of liquidity, and it's actually a good way for a player to spend however much money they want to in a game, which was previously constricted."

Wu's resignation today signals the end of a short but active run for FTX Ventures. In light of recent allegations of fraud and mismanagement at FTX, Wu's previous statements about the need to call out bad actors in the space seem all the more relevant.

"There's this constant narrative and paranoia that Web3 will become centralized, just like the previous rise of industries and the internet, etc.," Wu said on the Decrypt gm podcast in February. "I think it's good for people to remain paranoid about it, and to call out bad actors."

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