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FTX is eyeing Robinhood

The crypto giant is reportedly considering buying the troubled online brokerage after its CEO took a stake in the company.

Robinhood

FTX is reportedly interested in buying Robinhood.

Image: Olena Panasovska/Alex Muravev/Protocol

FTX is reportedly exploring the possibility of buying Robinhood. The crypto exchange led by CEO Sam Bankman-Fried is looking into whether it could acquire the online brokerage, according to a Bloomberg report that cited unnamed sources.

No final decision has been made, the report said. Bankman-Fried also downplayed the report in a statement to Bloomberg saying, “There are no active M&A conversations with Robinhood." In filings, Bankman-Fried revealed in May that he personally held a 7.6% stake in Robinhood.

Robinhood had no comment on the report, which sparked a rally in the company's shares. The stock closed up 14% Monday, helped as well by a Goldman Sachs analyst report upgrading it from sell to neutral.

Goldman noted that Robinhood’s stock price had plunged about 29% since it was downgraded to sell in April and it was reaching “a reasonable fundamental floor for the value of the company."

Benjamin Pimentel

Benjamin Pimentel ( @benpimentel) covers crypto and fintech from San Francisco. He has reported on many of the biggest tech stories over the past 20 years for the San Francisco Chronicle, Dow Jones MarketWatch and Business Insider, from the dot-com crash, the rise of cloud computing, social networking and AI to the impact of the Great Recession and the COVID crisis on Silicon Valley and beyond. He can be reached at bpimentel@protocol.com or via Google Voice at (925) 307-9342.

robinhoodonline brokeragesam bankman-friedftxacquisitions
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