Sam Bankman-Fried was in talks with an array of potential investors to raise $9.4B for FTX, the 30-year-old billionaire's cryptocurrency exchange that's struggling to stay afloat, Reuters reported Thursday, citing a person familiar with the matter. The news comes shortly after SBF reportedly told investors on Wednesday that FTX would need to file for bankruptcy in the absence of a capital injection. The once-mighty exchange faced up to $8B in a liquidity shortfall. Those discussions included obtaining about $1B from Tron token ( TRX-USD ) founder Justin Sun, $1B from crypto exchange OKX, $1B from stablecoin issuer Tether and $2B from a consortium of investment funds, the person told Reuters, noting that the rest of the funding would come from other investors, including multi-billion dollar hedge fund Third Point. SBF's desired rescue package, though, has made little progress in coming to fruition, the person added. The implosion of SBF's crypto empire rumbles on as FTX scrambles for capital. The exchange signed a non-binding deal earlier this week to sell its non-U.S. business to rival Binance, but the latter backed away from the agreement just a day later due to issues that "are beyond our control or ability to help." FTX, OKX and Third Point did not immediately respond to Seeking Alpha's request for comment. Earlier, SBF pledged to use "every penny" FTX has to repay its users .
