Bankman-Fried Belies Bear, Bids for Bitvo

The Bahamas-based firm agreed to acquire Canadian crypto exchange Bitvo for an undisclosed sum

share

key takeaways

  • FTX’s acquisition is expected to close in the third quarter of 2022
  • CEO Sam Bankman-Fried earlier told Blockworks he expects a wave of M&A activity throughout the market downturn

Cryptocurrency exchange FTX has struck an agreement to acquire Canadian cryptoasset trading firm Bitvo, the company announced, Friday.

FTX didn’t disclose the terms of the deal. The announcement comes during a period of turmoil in the cryptocurrency industry, with asset prices extending losses in a broad sell-off for several days. Companies in the space, including Celsius, Three Arrows Capital and Babel Finance, have all disclosed liquidity issues, raising fears that more turbulence might be in store for investors.

The Bahamas-based firm noted that Bitvo secured the first license to offer cryptoasset trading services across Canada. It is also registered with the intelligence agency Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada.

“Canada has shown a growing interest in digital asset trading, and we’re thrilled to help provide entry into one of the leading regulated crypto asset trading platforms in the world to the Canadian cryptocurrency community,” Bitvo CEO Pamela Draper said in a statement.

Alberta-based Bitvo will be integrated into FTX after the acquisition, which is expected to close in the third quarter of this year. 

FTX’s valuation rose to $32 billion after raising $400 million in its third fundraising round within six months in January, indicating that it is well placed to make acquisitions in the space.

CEO Sam Bankman-Fried told Blockworks in April that difficult market conditions could trigger a wave of mergers and acquisitions, and that it “wouldn’t be totally shocking” for the company to acquire some shrinking exchanges.

In May, Bankman-Fried personally bought a 7.6% stake in trading platform Robinhood. In June, FTX expanded into Japan following its acquisition of a local fintech Liquid Group and its subsidiaries, in a bid to navigate the stringent regulatory environment in the country.

A recent report from crypto research firm Kaiko shows bitcoin trading volumes on FTX exceeded Coinbase’s for the first time in May.


Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. Subscribe to the Empire newsletter.

Explore the growing intersection between crypto, macroeconomics, policy and finance with Ben Strack, Casey Wagner and Felix Jauvin. Subscribe to the Forward Guidance newsletter.

Get alpha directly in your inbox with the 0xResearch newsletter — market highlights, charts, degen trade ideas, governance updates, and more.

The Lightspeed newsletter is all things Solana, in your inbox, every day. Subscribe to daily Solana news from Jack Kubinec and Jeff Albus.

Tags

Upcoming Events

Javits Center North | 445 11th Ave

Tues - Thurs, March 18 - 20, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

recent research

kamino cover.jpg

Research

Kamino has solidified its position as the leading money market on Solana and is emerging as a DeFi bluechip. Although DeFi competition is fierce, Kamino has kept iterating on its product to provide the best-in-class UX, paired with a robust risk management framework and battle-tested infrastructure. Given the rollout of Kamino Lend V2, the protocol may scale aggressively over the coming months, penetrating previously untapped markets in Solana DeFi.

article-image

Also in the tokenized fund space, Franklin Templeton launches on Base and Securitize hits $1 billion in tokenized RWA onchain

article-image

It turns out that bitcoin never actually hit an all-time high in March. Thanks a lot, inflation.

article-image

Spire, Citrea and Nillion also announced raises this week

article-image

The latest recipient of an SEC Wells notice is a Web3 gaming company

article-image

Thursday’s selloff was led by tech stocks, triggered by disappointing outlooks from giants Meta and Microsoft

article-image

Historically, positive returns have been a bit more of a toss-up during the year’s 11th month