FTX May Launch Own Stablecoin ‘in the Not-too-distant Future,’ CEO Says
Sam Bankman-Fried also shared that FTX has between $1 billion and $4 billion on hand to make acquisitions
Blockworks Exclusive art by axel rangel
key takeaways
- FTX is “trying to find the perfect partners” for a stablecoin project, Bankman-Fried says
- The exchange recently entered a deal to buy crypto lending business BlockFi for up to $240 million
FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried revealed that the crypto exchange is considering developing its own stablecoin in an interview with European publication The Big Whale.
Most major exchanges already have an asset-backed stablecoin. Binance, for instance, has Binance USD (BUSD) — issued by Paxos — and Coinbase, in collaboration with Circle, launched the USD Coin (USDC) stablecoin.
In that context, when asked if FTX could launch its own stablecoin, Bankman-Fried answered:
“We certainly could. We know how to do it. We’ve held off on doing it because, we think to some extent, collaboration on that could be really powerful.”
FTX is “trying to find the perfect partners” to work with, and its users may be “hearing something from us on that topic in the not too distant future,” Bankman-Fried said.
FTX’s focus at the moment is “to offer the best possible trading platform accessible to all” and so far this year “dealing with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on some of our products,” has been keeping them busy, Bankman-Fried added.
Earlier this month, the crypto executive advocated for regulatory oversight of the crypto space, and stablecoins in particular, at an event hosted by the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington, DC.
“Right now, the regulatory oversight of [stablecoins] is extremely unclear, it’s extremely messy and there are a lot of cooks hovering around the kitchen, but there’s no head chef,” Bankman-Fried said.
He also recently offered his own take on how the crypto industry should be regulated, drafting the document “Possible Digital Asset Industry Standards.” Many were quick to critique his ideas when it comes to centralized entities interfacing with DeFi.
In response, Bankman-Fried addressed the “constructive feedback” via Twitter, offering thanks and expressing his optimism for the future of the US policy landscape.
Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:
- The Breakdown: Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily.
- Empire: Crypto news and analysis to start your day.
- Forward Guidance: The intersection of crypto, macro and policy.
- 0xResearch: Alpha directly in your inbox.
- Lightspeed: All things Solana.
- The Drop: Apps, games, memes and more.
- Supply Shock: Bitcoin, bitcoin, bitcoin.
