Key takeaways:
- Cryptocurrency exchange FTX is reportedly aiming to purchase app-based trading platform Robinhood
- The CEO of FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried, bought more than $600 million worth of Robinhood shares earlier this year
- Robinhood has been expanding its crypto offering in recent months
The report of a potential acquisition comes six weeks after FTX CEO bought $600M+ of Robinhood stock
On Monday, Bloomberg reported that the FTX cryptocurrency exchange – helmed by the 30-year-old CEO and crypto billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried – is exploring an acquisition of a popular trading app Robinhood. According to “people with knowledge of the matter,” the FTX team is discussing ways to buy Robinhood behind closed doors.
Bloomberg’s report comes roughly a month and a half after Bankman-Fried acquired more than 56 million shares of the popular trading platform Robinhood, worth more than $600 million at the time the massive purchase was made public. The FTX CEO currently controls a 7.6% stake in the trading company.
Per Bloomberg, Robinhood has amassed more than 22 million users since the company was founded in April 2013. The company was the first to provide commission-free trading and put emphasis on making stock trading accessible to less experienced traders.
Since the company’s initial public offering (IPO) in July 2021, the shares have tanked by more than 74%. The market cap of the app-based brokerage stands at $7.7 billion at the time of writing.
In the months following the IPO, Robinhood added support for several cryptocurrencies, including Shiba Inu, Solana, and Polygon in April 2022. In addition, the company launched a Web3 wallet in May, focused on streamlining access to DeFi and NFTs.
