Cryptocurrency giant FTX ready with billions of dollars for acquisitions

Fast-growing cryptocurrency exchange FTX is prepared to spend billions of dollars to buy stakes in other companies as it looks to grow the suite of products it offers customers, according to the firm’s chief executive officer.

Billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried, who is also the firm’s co-founder, said on Friday that recent rounds of fundraising by FTX and its US entity – totalling more than US$2 billion – could be used to bankroll the moves.

“FTX is a profitable company,” he said in an interview. “You can look at the amount that we’ve raised over the last year or two – it’s a few billion dollars. That gives maybe a sense of where we are in terms of cash that was explicitly viewed from a potential acquisition angle.”

Bankman-Fried, 30, has emerged as one of the most recognisable people in crypto. FTX crashed into the mainstream with Super Bowl ads, naming rights to the Miami Heat’s home court, and its logo on Major League Baseball umpire uniforms. Most recently, FTX has been making waves in traditional financial circles with a plan that could cut out brokerages from clearing some derivatives.

FTX has no shortage of funds in its war chest for deal-making. In January, the exchange raised US$400 million at a US$32 billion valuation, bringing the total amount raised in the prior half a year to close to US$2 billion. At the same time, its US entity separately raised US$400 million.

While Bankman-Fried said FTX does not need to buy new firms to grow, the company has already been on a spending spree.

Last year, the American arm bought LedgerX, a Commodity Futures Trading Commission-regulated exchange and clearing house, to gain a foothold in the US crypto derivatives market. In April, FTX bought a significant stake in IEX Group, owner of the stock-trading platform made famous by “Flash Boys.” This month, Bankman-Fried revealed that he had bought a 7.6 per cent stake in Robinhood Markets.