How FTX’s marketing blitz drew in a Canadian pension fund — and what the crypto crisis means for big investors

• FTX, the collapsed crypto exchange, found backers in BlackRock, VanEck, and Ontario Teachers.
• The crisis facing the exchange and its famous CEO raises questions of a ripple effect.
• Institutional asset managers are more entangled with the crypto ecosystem than ever. 

Last year, some of the biggest names in institutional investing placed their trust in giant cryptocurrency exchange FTX and Sam Bankman-Fried, its widely followed founder, during a boom in the crypto market. 

BlackRock was among the asset management firms that made a small investment in FTX through its funds. Ontario Teachers, among the world’s largest pension plans, also invested. So did the fund manager VanEck, which offers an exchange-traded note that invests in FTT, the FTX token that has lost much of its value.

In a stunning collapse, FTX has now filed for bankruptcy and Bankman-Fried has resigned. Binance, a rival crypto exchange that was initially going to buy FTX, last week backed out of a deal to rescue it.