Someone Bought This FTX Diamond Necklace for $134,000

Months before FTX filed for bankruptcy over allegedly disappearing several billion dollars in user funds, the crypto exchange commissioned a 12-carat diamond necklace loosely inspired by its logo. The stiff-looking neckpiece involved a burst of teal diamonds in five shades — “irradiated to bring to life FTX’s iconic logo,” per one description — and a strand of 18-karat white gold with palladium alloy. It got its own trailer.

“For FTX and the FTX foundation, we believe there is no greater luxury than having the opportunity to make the biggest possible change for good,” a voice-over read. “That is the inspiration behind the FTX comète necklace…The FTX comète necklace is a symbol of luxury in its most compassionate form.”

The necklace may have been a “symbol of luxury in its most compassionate form,” but in more literal terms, it was the symbol of a comet. That might explain why FTX dubbed it the “FTX comète necklace;” as for why they chose to say it in French, perhaps it’s because the “FTX Comet” name is already taken by a line of radio-controlled toy monster trucks. “Comète,” meanwhile, happens to be the name of a long-running Chanel collection of diamond jewelry, though it’s unclear whether or not the luxury brand was involved in the necklace’s construction, as FTX never mentions the couturier in its marketing materials. (Chanel did not respond to multiple requests for comment.)

The trailer for the necklace, released in late May, featured Lauren Remington Platt, FTX’s head of global luxury partnerships, who had been hired a month earlier. Remington Platt is the socialite descendant of two wholesome American dynasties: the gun manufacturing Remington Arms family and the DuPonts, whose eponymous chemical company has attracted more environmental controversies than one can list in a sentence. In short: They developed freon and inspired the 2019 legal thriller Dark Waters.

Remington Platt would resign by the end of the summer, months before FTX collapsed. But before that, she debuted the necklace at the 2022 Met Gala. Her outfit is pretty mid, as far as Met getups go, but at the very least on topic; the theme was “Gilded Glamour.” As Remington Platt told reporters at the time: “The fashion world is one I know well, and one that needs to learn more about crypto.” (Of her boss’s preference for T-shirts, she added: “Sam has a very strong fashion sense. Most importantly, he’s authentic to himself.”)

The necklace’s actual purpose, though, was not to be bandied about at the Met Gala, but to be bandied about and sold at a different benefit gala weeks later. This one was for the Foundation for AIDS Research, or amfAR; FTX put the necklace up for auction at the nonprofit’s annual party in Cannes. FTX was also the event’s first crypto sponsor, and for the first time, guests could bid on auction items in crypto, through FTXPay. Those items included: a pop art portrait of the Queen (she wasn’t dead yet) called “Lightness of Being,” which sold for roughly $240,000 (€225,000), and a collection of fashion sketches called “Let’s Get Married,” which sold for about $851,000 (€800,000).

The necklace also went up for sale, where it was modeled by Pose actress Indya Moore. Someone bought it for €125,000, or just under $134,000. Who was the buyer? We reached out to multiple amfAR reps for comment, but they did not immediately respond. And even if 2022 tax returns were available, amfAR does not disclose individual donors on their 990s, as is often the case with 501(c)3s. But whoever it was paid the equivalent of two years of sticker-price college tuition for the logo necklace of a bankrupt company whose founder is now in jail awaiting extradition. At least it went to a good cause. To quote a motivational poster from my high school whose message always struck me as slightly threatening, “Everybody wants to be a diamond, but very few are willing to get cut.”