FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried Publicly Denies Huobi Acquisition Rumours

FTX is not planning to acquire crypto exchange Huobi, the company's founder and CEO Sam Bankman-Fried said on Twitter. Bankman-Fried's comments arrive after a recent Bloomberg article named FTX and Tron founder Justin Sun among a list of investors that have had “preliminary contact” with Huobi as its founder Leon Li looks to sell about 60 percent stake of the company. Per the report, Li is seeking a $2 billion to $3 billion (roughly Rs. 16,000 crore to Rs. 24,000 crore) valuation for the company and has reached out to “several international institutions.”

“No, we are not planning to acquire Huobi,” Bankman-Fried wrote. “Apparently a lot of people are saying this.” Meanwhile, Justin Sun has also publicly announced that their company was not involved in any negotiations with this matter.

Sam Bankman-Fried has been dubbed “the next Warren Buffett” by Forbes for his acquisitions during this crypto bear run. His ventures have been providing financing to a lot of companies.

In July, FTX provided a $250 million (roughly Rs. 2,000 crore) revolving credit to a crypto lender BlockFi, who halted withdrawals following Three Arrows Capital. Bankman-Fried later praised BlockFi for “careful risk management and great leadership” in “removing troublesome counterparties before they become a problem.”

Another Bankman-Fried-owned company, quantitative trading firm Alameda, offered $500 million (roughly Rs. 4,000 crore) to finance a troubled crypto broker Voyager Digital to let their customers get early liquidity through FTX and recover part of their funds. This was an offer Voyager later rejected, describing it as an attempt to generate publicity.

FTX's revenue grew over 1,000 percent over the last year, leaked documents reviewed by CNBC showed. The company's capitalisation increased from $90 million (roughly Rs. 800 crore) in 2020 to over $1 billion (roughly Rs. 8,000 crore) in 2021 during the market's peak, thanks to multiple acquisitions and despite spending millions on marketing campaigns, including 2022 Super Bowl ads and the naming rights to Miami's NBA arena.