FTX’s Treasure Trove Of Venture Investments; WNBA Players Get A Much Deserved Pay Rise; and Banksy Is Really Rob From Bristol
- Dipo Owolabi
- Mar 19
- 5 min read
Sam Bankman-Fried’s early bets could have turned into an almost absurd $80 billion paper fortune, with stakes in Anthropic, Robinhood and Solana showing just how explosive the upside was before FTX collapsed. At the same time, the WNBA and its players’ union have reached a verbal CBA deal that could lift the salary cap to $7 million, push average pay to around $600,000, and finally give the league’s labor fight a major pay-off. In energy, Trump is temporarily waiving Jones Act shipping rules to help fight rising domestic fuel prices as crude spikes across the board, and in art, the mystery around Banksy may be cracking after reporting pointed to Robin Gunningham as the man behind the mask. Big money, bigger consequences, and a few long-running myths getting expensive. All this and more in today’s Read It and Eat! |
Markets Around The World
Markets as of 18th March 2026. Cells in RED mean that the value is down, cells in Green mean the value is up.
MAJOR HEADLINES
FTX’s A List Venture Investment; One Banger After Another!
Sam Bankman-Fried’s early bets are being recast as one of the most improbable “what ifs” in venture history. According to the report, his pre-collapse investments in companies like Anthropic, Robinhood, Solana and Mysten Labs appreciated massively on paper, with one estimate putting the total potential value of those positions at around $80 billion. The headline figure is driven largely by Anthropic, where a $500 million stake is said to have grown to roughly $70 billion, while smaller positions in Solana, Mysten Labs and Robinhood also ballooned far beyond their original size.
The underlying message is that FTX’s founder, before his legal downfall, had access to some of the strongest private-market and crypto winners of the cycle. The report says $60 million in Solana tokens, bought at $8 each, peaked at $2.1 billion, while a $100 million Mysten Labs stake rose to more than $800 million, and a 7.5% Robinhood stake reached about $10 billion. In other words, the portfolio was not just lucky on one bet; it was stacked with outsized exposure to the most explosive corners of crypto and AI.
But none of that value belongs to Bankman-Fried personally now. The article stresses that his assets were seized after the collapse of FTX, following his conviction and the finding that customer funds had been misappropriated. That makes the story less about a triumphant investor and more about a reminder that paper gains can be meaningless when the underlying capital is stolen, frozen, or clawed back by courts and creditors. The scale of the missed upside only sharpens the contrast between the brilliance of the bets and the fraud that destroyed the platform. Phemex
WNBA, Players’ Union Reach Verbal Agreement on New CBA Terms
The WNBA and its players’ union have reached a verbal agreement on a new collective bargaining agreement, marking one of the most significant financial leaps in women’s sports history. The proposed deal would raise the salary cap to $7 million (up from $1.5 million in 2025), with average salaries jumping to around $600,000 and minimum salaries exceeding $300,000. The supermax salary, the highest tier of player earnings is also set to rise sharply to about $1.4 million, compared to roughly $249,000 previously.
The supermax is essentially the league’s top salary bracket, reserved for elite players who meet certain criteria like years of experience, performance level, and team designation. It’s designed to allow teams to retain star talent without completely breaking salary cap rules. In simple terms, it’s how the league pays its biggest stars closer to their true market value while maintaining some level of competitive balance across teams. The sharp increase in the supermax signals that the WNBA is finally beginning to financially recognize its top-tier players in a way that aligns more closely with its growing popularity and commercial success.
Beyond the headline numbers, this deal reflects a deeper structural shift in the league. With players now expected to receive a larger share of league revenues, the agreement positions the WNBA as a rapidly maturing sports business rather than a developing one. If finalized, it could improve player retention, attract global talent, and fundamentally reshape how women’s professional basketball is valued turning what was once a fight for sustainability into a push for true profitability and scale. ESPN
The Trump administration has temporarily waived Jones Act shipping requirements in an effort to ease the pressure from surging domestic energy prices. The Jones Act normally requires cargo moved between U.S. ports to be carried on American-built, American-owned, and American-crewed vessels, but the waiver opens the door for foreign-flagged ships to carry fuel and fertilizer within the U.S. for 60 days. The move is clearly designed to improve flexibility in the middle of an energy shock.
The backdrop is a sharp rise in crude prices as the Iran conflict has tightened global supply expectations. Reports say WTI futures jumped to above $97 per barrel, while Brent moved above $108.80, and the administration is trying to blunt the domestic fallout through a mix of shipping relief, reserve releases, and other supply measures. The waiver is especially relevant because it can make it cheaper and faster to move seaborne fuel and fertilizer around the U.S., even if it does not fully solve the broader price spike.
The practical effect is likely to be partial rather than decisive. Trade groups representing refiners and farmers welcomed the move, but shipping advocates warned it could hit American maritime labor and still do little to offset the broader geopolitical premium embedded in oil prices. In other words, the waiver is a pressure valve, not a cure: it may help at the margin, but the real driver remains the global oil shock and the risk of longer-term supply disruption. Yahoo Finance |
Banksy’s Identity Has Been Revealed; Its Rob From Bristol
A new Reuters investigation has once again pushed Banksy’s real identity into the spotlight, arguing that the elusive street artist is Robin Gunningham, a Bristol-born man who later reportedly used the name David Jones. Reuters traced a long trail of clues, including a 2000 New York arrest tied to vandalism and later travel records that appeared to line up with Banksy murals in Ukraine. The report does not rely on one smoking gun; it assembles a wider case from police records, eyewitness accounts and archival evidence.
The story matters because Banksy’s anonymity has always been part of the brand. The mystery has helped turn his work into a cultural phenomenon, and the report suggests that the identity reveal could further commercialise the art by making it feel more “secure” to collectors while also stripping away some of the myth. Reuters also revisits earlier speculation linking Banksy to Robert Del Naja of Massive Attack, but the new reporting places the strongest weight on Gunningham.
The reaction is split between public-interest curiosity and concern about privacy and safety. Banksy’s representatives have not confirmed the report, and his lawyer has reportedly disputed parts of the investigation. Even so, the piece reinforces a strange paradox: Banksy’s value has grown precisely because he remained hidden, and now the act of revealing him may make his art more expensive while making the myth harder to sustain. Wall Street Journal
Minor Headlines
Oil prices spiked after attack on Iranian gas field BBC
Meta will pay Instagram, TikTok and YouTube creators with big followings to post on Facebook CNBC
Fed votes to hold rates steady, notes ‘uncertain’ impacts from Iran war CNBC
FBI and IRS to investigate nonprofit groups for domestic terrorism links CBSnews
BofA pitches bets against European private credit Financial Times
Asia tech stocks sink as oil spike and Qatar attacks threaten chip supply chain CNBC
UK to protect steel industry with new import tariffs Financial Times
Mystery AI model revealed to be Xiaomi's following suspicions it was DeepSeek V4 Reuters
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