The U.S. Bloomberg News reported on the 27th (local time) that the cryptocurrency exchange FTX is considering acquiring Robinhood, an online stock exchange platform in the U.S.
Citing sources, Bloomberg reported that FTX, led by 30-year-old cryptocurrency billionaire Sam Bankman-Freed, is internally discussing the possibility of acquiring Robinhood.
Robinhood has yet to receive an official acquisition offer, the source explained.
Earlier, FTX CEO Bankman-Freed said he acquired a 7.6% stake in Robinhood (about $648 million) through the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) disclosure last month.
At the time, CEO Bankman-Freed explained the reason for acquiring Robin Hood’s stake, saying it was an attractive investment opportunity.
Robin Hood, which has greatly expanded its momentum following the stock investment craze of young “ants” (individual investors) after the COVID-19 incident, has fallen into a slump this year in the aftermath of the overall decline.
Robinhood sales plunged 43% in the first quarter from the same period last year.
Because of this, the current stock price has plunged nearly 50% compared to the beginning of the year.
The number of monthly active users also decreased from 17.7 million last year to 15.9 million this year.
However, shares of Robinhood rose 14 percent on the same day alone on FTX’s review of the acquisition.
FTX CEO Bankman-Freed recently provided a large amount of emergency funds to two insolvent coin companies in a liquidity crisis.
He provided a total of $750 million in relief to coin lender Block Pie and coin brokerage firm Voyager Digital.
Robinhood’s cryptocurrency trading services, which began in 2018, account for as much as securities trading services.
