Peter Thiel,  venture capitalist and Paypal co-founder who was one of Facebook’s early backers, cashed in 20.1 million shares, to raise $395.8m (£251m) last week.

Last week was the first time since Facebook’s float that early backers could cash in their shares.

The value of Facebook shares have fallen sharply since their debut two months ago.

Mr Thiel had already sold shares worth more than $640m during the flotation, taking his total profit to more than $1bn.

Last week, Facebook released 271.1 million shares as the first so-called “lock-up” stopping early investors and employees selling their shares expired.

Another 1.44 billion shares, owned by early investors and Facebook staff, are set to be freed up by the end of November as five additional lock-ups expire.