Sam Bankman-Fried's FTX in Talks to Buy South Korean Crypto Exchange Bithumb

Vidente, the owner of South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb, said he held discussions about possibly selling a portion of its stake to Sam Bankman-Fried’s company FTX, according to a CNBC report. 

This report confirms rumors that surfaced last week of the same news from an anonymous source. Now those rumors are confirmed from Bithumb themselves saying it is reviewing a full acquisition or joint management of the exchange. 

Vidente confirmed that no course of action has been decided on, at  the moment. 

This announcement comes less than a week after Bitpush reported FTX was considering raising funds amid Bankman-Fried’s aggressive acquisition approach amid a major crypto market downturn. 

Last month, FTX signed a deal giving it the option to acquire crypto lending company, BlockFi, at a maximum of $240 million. In addition, earlier this year, FTX launched a trading venue in Japan, providing local investors with crypto services. Shortly after that, FTX acquired Bitvo, a Canadian cryptocurrency platform. 

If this deal to acquire or jointly manage Bithumb goes through, it would give FTX a greater foothold in Asia and particularly South Korea, where Bithumb operates out of. Bithumb is one of South Korea’s largest exchanges, who has done $479 million in trading volume in the last 24 hours, according to CoinGecko data. 

Author: Tyler Irvin

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