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

Last year, an FTX executive walked into a bank office here and put $4.5 million of the company’s money behind an ambitious plan to buy an oceanside parcel of land and turn it into the crypto giant’s new headquarters.

The executive, Ryan Salame, closed the deal in short order, people familiar with the matter said, just part of the company’s whirlwind real-estate shopping spree in and around Nassau. In April, the Bahamas prime minister appeared with FTX executives at a ceremonial groundbreaking on the new land. But construction never really got under way. FTX...