Crypto Firm FTX Landed in the Bahamas With a Bang, and Now the Bahamas Is Picking Up the Pieces

NASSAU, Bahamas—Last year, an FTX executive walked into a bank office here and put $4.5 million in company money for an ambitious plan to buy a beachfront lot and make it the new headquarters of the crypto giant.

Managing director, Ryan Salame, closed the deal shortly, people familiar with the matter said, just part of a whirlwind of corporate property purchases in and around Nassau. In April, the prime minister of the Bahamas appeared with FTX executives at a groundbreaking ceremony on the new land. But construction never actually got underway. FTX collapsed this month, its real estate holdings are now bankrupt.