FTX May Buy South Korean Crypto Exchange Bithumb

FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried is said to be interested in taking over South Korean crypto exchange Bithumb. 

According to Bloomberg, this discussion has been in progress for “several months” and FTX is in late-stage talks to potentially acquire Bithumb, which has over 8 million registered users.

When asked to confirm or deny the report, an FTX representative told Decrypt “no comment.” Neither has Bithumb responded to Decrypt’s request for comment.

Bithumb has struggled on and off over the years despite trading over $1 trillion in total volume on its exchange. Not only that, Bithumb faced a number of lawsuits back in 2020 and Huobi was reportedly looking to take over it, but never did. 

Last month, FTX bought over the Canadian crypto exchange Bitvo “to expand FTX’s global reach.”

“Our expansion into Canada is another step in proactively working with cryptocurrency regulators in different geographies across the globe,” Bankman-Fried added.

FTX is also in the midst of acquiring troubled lender BlockFi in a $680 million credit and acquisition deal. 

And in June, rumors spreads that FTX was also in talks to purchase trading platform Robinhood, who laid off 9% of its staff back in April due to slowed growth.  Bankman-Fried has denied the reports.

FTX may be looking to acquire crypto companies at a discounted rate during this bear market. Early this month, Bankman-Fried has said that FTX still has “a few billion” that could be deployed to stabilize other crypto companies. Theorically those funds could also be used to directly purchase them.

FTX is clearly working to fulfill what it believes to be its “responsibility” to support the crypto industry at large in this time of turmoil.

On the other hand, the Celsius and Voyager Digital bankruptcy filings has startled retail investors, unable to access or withdraw their funds.

In a response, Bankman-Fried said on Friday that he is “happy to do what we can” to help out Voyager’s customers by providing liquidity to the troubled firm.