FTX Reportedly in Talks to Buy South Korean Exchange Bithumb

The exchange recently agreed to acquire troubled lender BlockFi and Canadian trading platform Bitvo

article-image

FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried | Blockworks exclusive art by axel rangel

share

key takeaways

  • Conversations about the acquisition have been ongoing for several months, according to Bloomberg
  • Founded in South Korea in 2014, Bithumb has grown to become one of South Korea’s “big four” cryptocurrency exchanges

Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX is looking to buy South Korean crypto exchange Bithumb, according to Bloomberg.

Acquisition talks have been ongoing for several months, a person familiar with the matter told the news outlet. There’s no word on Bithumb’s potential valuation.

The crypto bear market has given companies with larger cash reserves the perfect opportunity to acquire struggling competitors. FTX recently reached a deal to acquire troubled lender BlockFi for up to $240 million and agreed to purchase Bitvo and Embed Financial earlier in June. 

Alameda Research, another company founded by Bankman-Fried, also loaned $500 million to bankrupt crypto lender Voyager. Bankman-Fried is also Voyager’s single largest individual shareholder, holding 11% of the company. 

These moves further strengthen the rumor that Bankman-Fried is actively using the crypto market crash to assert his dominance in the industry.

Chris McCann, a general partner at early FTX investor Race Capital, told Bloomberg that Bankman-Fried is “not doing this out of the goodness of his own heart,” claiming that at this point “his ambitions knows no bounds.”

Founded in South Korea in 2014, Bithumb has grown to become one of South Korea’s “big four” cryptocurrency exchanges, alongside Upbit, Coinone and Korbit. Reports of Bithumb being up for sale have circulated since 2020, with the firm reportedly valued at 1.27 trillion won ($969 million) last year.

It currently handles about $560 million in daily trade volume, according to CoinGecko data.

Bithumb’s former chair Lee Jung-hoon was indicted in July last year after he allegedly swindled $100 million from the chair of BK Group, Kim Byung Gun. Bithumb was also among several South Korean crypto exchanges that were raided by local prosecutors last week, following investigations into TerraUSD’s collapse

An FTX spokesperson declined to comment. Bithumb did not respond to Blockworks’ request for comment by press time.


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

Salt Lake City, UT

WED - FRI, OCTOBER 9 - 11, 2024

Permissionless is a conference for founders, application developers, and users. Come meet the next generation of people building and using crypto.

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

Research Report Templates (6).png

Research

In recent months, a number of highly accretive developments were implemented across the protocol to improve fee capture, expand product functionality, and ultimately drive value accrual to the RUNE token, with more upgrades on the immediate horizon. These developments include hiking the minimum swap fee parameter to increase revenue, adding a Burn System Income Lever to reduce the RUNE supply, the addition of COSM-WASM smart contracting and IBC to enable an application layer, new chain integrations, and more.

article-image

A repayment plan has officially been approved, nearly two years after FTX went bust

article-image

Coinbase filed an interlocutory appeal in its case against the SEC earlier this year

article-image

FTX “never had the crypto” to make in-kind distributions, witness says at FTX’s confirmation hearing

article-image

Lucid Ventures co-founder Meta said they don’t think Solana is “abnormal” in the VC world, where it’s “standard” for many projects to fail

article-image

Plus, Polymarket hits all-time highs in daily trading volumes

article-image

Bitcoin is now in the second half of its bull market, if the previous ones are anything to go by