Taylor Swift agreed to FTX partnership, but crypto exchange bailed: Source

Taylor Swift signed and agreed to a sponsorship deal with bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX, and after months of discussions, FTX executives decided not to go through with the deal, a person familiar with the matter told CNBC.

The nature of the agreement, previously reported New York Times On Thursday, this contradicted publicly available information about the nature of the FTX-Swift deal failure. The public statement from the class-action attorneys praised Swift for her due diligence work and said the artist asked the exchange to explain why its listed assets were not considered unregistered securities.

But people familiar with the matter told CNBC that Swift eventually agreed to the deal. The signed agreement was sent to the email inbox of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, but the agreement remained unanswered for weeks, the person told CNBC, adding that eventually, a group of FTX executives convinced Bankman- Fried not to proceed with the agreement. The deal is reportedly worth $100 million.

Swift’s team signed the deal with FTX after six months of negotiations, but Bankman-Fried eventually terminated the deal, three other people familiar with the matter told The New York Times.

The person requested anonymity because of the ongoing federal and bankruptcy proceedings. The existence of the FTX-Swift partnership was first established by FT.

FTX filed for bankruptcy protection in November 2022. Bankman-Fried faces multiple federal charges, including fraud and campaign finance violations. Three other FTX executives — Gary Wang, Caroline Ellison and Nishad Singh — have pleaded guilty to multiple federal charges and are cooperating with the government’s prosecution of Bankman-Fried.