Sam Bankman-Fried was not bragging about his plan to “save” troubled cryptocurrency companies despite the crypto winter.
Over the past few months, many companies have fallen into a difficult situation, some were even going bankrupt.
FTX is on the road to rule as it was confirmed that the exchange was in talks to acquire Bithumb.
Empire Expansion
Vidente, the largest shareholder of Bithumb, revealed that FTX held discussions to capture Vidente”s dominant shares. In other words, FTX is close to Bithumb’s acquisition.
However, Vidente did not give any further details on the acquisition. The official news was reported by Bloomberg.
According to a source close to the issue, Sam is targeting the cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb. It was stated that the negotiations have been quietly going on for the past few months and are approaching the final stage.
The Perfect Time to BUY
A series of bad events such as the collapse of LUNA/UST or the bankruptcy of major hedge fund Three Arrow Capitals (3AC) hardly affect the FTX exchange.
The exchange’s CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried is constantly looking for other merger and acquisition opportunities, mainly aimed at startups. FTX continued its acquisition of the Bitvo exchange throughout the month of June (Canada).
In addition to carrying out a number of acquisitions, FTX is actively pursuing the advancement of legal research and the expansion of market share.
At the beginning of June 2022, the exchange overtook Coinbase to take the position of the second largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world.
In early 2022, FTX made a hit in the crypto world with a successful acquisition of Japanese crypto firm Liquid Exchange, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world.
FTX’s target this time is Bithumb, one of the popular cryptocurrency exchanges in South Korea. The exchange faced many lawsuits and was rumored to be acquired by Huobi in 2020. Huobi and Bithumb were unable to further process the acquisition.
It’s estimated that the number of Bithumb users exceeds 8 million while its trading volume has surpassed over $1 million.
Unfortunately, the firm is among the troubled companies that recently fell into financial crisis following the historic LUNA/UST disaster.
White Knight or Opportunist?
Bithumb is not the only crypto firm under FTX’s radar. Previously, FTX reached out to buy Voyager Digital.
Earlier this week, Voyager’s lawyers rejected the buyout offer from FTX and investment arm Alameda Ventures to buy back its digital assets, citing that it does not maximize value and is likely to harm the customer.
Sam Bankman-Fried quickly fired back. In a statement on Twitter, the young CEO said that the offer they made was for the benefit of Voyager customers and that the offer would give customers a chance to get their full money back in comparison to the “traditional process” which can “take years.”
“The consultants, for instance, likely want the bankruptcy process to drag out as long as possible, maximizing their fees. Our offer would let people claim assets quickly,” said Sam.
Voyager lawyers suggested their own proposed plan to restructure the company would be better as this solution would help them quickly redistribute all cash and crypto to customers.
Because of the liquidity crisis that occurred at the beginning of June, Voyager Digital had to reach out to Alameda Research for a loan of $485 million worth of cryptocurrency.
However, this amount was not enough to assist the company in its recovery. Voyager filed for bankruptcy in July due to insolvency in the amount of more than one billion United States dollars after being forfeited by the 3AC fund.
In addition, there is information that suggests Alameda Research owns Voyager a loan of $377 million. Changpeng Zhao, the CEO of Binance, was also unsatisfied with FTX’s trick of posing as a white knight and directly confronted Sam Bankman-Fried on social media.
FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried offered Voyager an arrangement in which Alameda would take all of Voyager’s assets and sell and distribute them through FTX or FTX US to customers affected by the bankruptcy.
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