SBF’s FTX Could Acquire Bithumb Soon Amid Talk of Market Domination

Per several reports, leading exchange FTX and South Korea’s crypto platform Bithumb could be working on a likely acquisition deal. FTX exchange has notably embarked on an accretion spree this year alone, absorbing more than three major companies.

New Purchase Speculations

Amidst declining market conditions, several crypto companies are struggling to remain afloat. However, despite the downsides of the bear market, it also presents more stable firms with certain opportunities. Those with sufficient fund reserves get the chance to acquire floundering rivals or smaller platforms at large. 

FTX appears to be effectively taking this course. Now per a Bloomberg report, the Bankman-Fried-led company intends to purchase Bithumb exchange. The Bloomberg team claimed to have obtained this information through a source familiar with the deal. 

According to the report,  the acquisition deal might have been in the works for several months now. However, so far there has not been any news of the size of the rumored proposal. 

FTX’s Acquisition Spree

FTX is yet to respond to the ongoing speculation. In recent times the exchange has embarked on what appears to be a purchase/bailout spree. Many believe FTX is using the market slump to gain more ground within the crypto industry, and for good reason, it seems.

Early this year, FTX purchased the Japan-based exchange Liquid. Neither party revealed the valuation, however, the deal saw FTX acquire all operational Liquid offshoots. These include Quoine Corporation and the company’s Singapore offices. 

More recently, the exchange agreed to a deal that could it see buy struggling crypto lender Blockfi for roughly $240M. This was after it acquired Bitvo and Embed Financial about a month prior. Additionally, Bankman-Fried’s Alameda Research lent crypto lender Voyager $500M shortly before they filed for bankruptcy. 

happy to do what we can to get liquidity to Voyager’s customers: https://t.co/zDtGMfGq64 https://t.co/MdoIfU229B

— SBF (@SBF_FTX) July 22, 2022

Bankman-Fried Looking to Expand?

With this in view, FTX’s latest move may have lent credibility to certain speculations. Some believe Sam Bankman-Fried is leveraging the ongoing slump to gain greater ground within the crypto industry. 

Interestingly, the FTX CEO spoke about his motivations a few weeks ago noting that the platform had reserved a few billion. Bankman-Fried said the goal was to bail out failing projects that could disrupt the crypto industry. He stated that he was positive the worst of the slump was gone while noting that the decline might be beneficial. 

According to Bankman-Fried, the bear market had removed “players that just were not capitalized well enough.” Bloomberg highlighted the words of Chris McCann, general partner at early FTX investor Race Capital. McCann claimed that Bankman-Fried isn’t bailing platforms out as a show of goodness. Instead, he pointed out that the FTX CEO’s ambitions “know no bounds.”