FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried has denied rumors that FTX is planning to acquire broker Robinhood saying that no active conversations were taking place.
Bloomberg was the first to report the news, citing sources close to the matter. The FTX CEO also bought a 7.6% stake in Robinhood last month. Bankman-Fried was quick to put an end to the rumor, saying:
“We are excited about Robinhood’s business prospects and potential ways we could partner with them, and I have always been impressed by the business that Vlad and his team have built. That being said there are no active M&A conversations with Robinhood.”
Predictably, the report sent Robinhood’s struggling stock price flying, with a 14% increase in the hours following the news. It has since dropped, but no doubt investors will keep a close eye on whether some form of collaboration will take place.
Robinhood is upping its interest in the cryptocurrency space, with the platform set to launch a noncustodial wallet. It has had a tough 2022, however, with the company laying off employees amid a slump in stock price.
FTX also in the news
FTX is one of the major crypto exchanges on the market, and its CEO has a hold over the crypto community and the media. The FTX Token DAO has raised $7 million, or 250,000 FTT, from its community, which will be converted into an ecosystem fund. The focus of the fund will be on crypto education, decentralized finance, and “effective altruism for the FTT community.”
Bankman-Fried was happy to see the community banding together. In other news, he promised that he would donate $1 billion to the Democrats’ U.S. presidential campaign. He also recently said that the Fed interest rate hike was the main reason behind the crypto market crash.
In any case, it looks like 2022 might be an eventful year for FTX. It appears to be preparing for a lot of business expansion, even as the market hurts from the crash.