Robinhood shares spike 30% after Sam Bankman-Fried buys $650M stake

Shares of popular online stockbroker Robinhood have risen more than 30% in after-hours trading following the acquisition of a 7.6% stake in the company by billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried.

Sam Bankman-Fried, the millionaire founder and CEO of cryptocurrency exchange FTX, has purchased a significant 7.6% stake in Robinhood, a prominent online brokerage, according to the filing published Thursday. At over 56 million shares, it was worth nearly $482 million at market close.

The market reacted positively to the news, sending the company’s stock (HOOD) price up more than 30% in after-hours trading. The price has settled to a 24% overall gain at the time of writing.

According to a Securities and Exchange Commission statement on Thursday, Bankman-Fried purchased a total of $648 million in Robinhood shares at an average price of $11.52. Bankman-transactions Fried’s are said to have begun in mid-March and continued until Wednesday.

Bankman-Fried stated in the securities filing that he had “no intention of taking any action toward changing or influencing the governance of Robinhood” and that the move was taken solely because he considered it is such as an “attractive investment.”

Robinhood’s communications team took to Twitter to emulate what Bankman-Fried said in his securities filing — tweeting to their 82,000 followers, “Of course we think it is an attractive investment too.”

Last July, the financial services company went public in a much-anticipated debut. However, the brokerage’s stock has stalled as retail enthusiasm for stock trading has waned in recent months. Before Thursday’s announcement, the broker’s stock had dropped by more than 70%.

The transaction demonstrates the enormous wealth that Bankman-Fried, a former Jane Street trader, has amassed during the most recent cryptocurrency boom. Even following last week’s sell-off in digital assets, Forbes estimates the 30-year-old FTX founder’s net worth to be $21 billion. He is a vocal proponent of effective altruism, a philosophical movement centred on doing as much good as possible with a person’s resources.

FTX, which investors value at $32 billion, has also entered Robinhood’s primary business. In February, the company’s US subsidiary launched a waiting list for a new stock trading platform, and one of its top executives recently teased the feature on Twitter.

As revenue from equity trading has declined, Robinhood has pushed hard into cryptocurrencies, introducing crypto wallets and adding more currencies, bringing it more in line with competitors such as Coinbase. It intends to develop internationally as a crypto brokerage and in April, purchased the UK crypto firm Ziglu.

Bankman-Fried has also been critical of the broker, particularly Robinhood’s decision to halt trading in certain equities at the height of the meme-stock trading frenzy. The company was later called before the House financial services committee to explain the incident. “I don’t think Robinhood did something evil,” he claimed. “I think they did something incompetent: they weren’t prepared for heavy usage.”

Earlier this month, Robinhood also announced intentions to integrate the Lightning Network and listed Shiba Inu (SHIB) following months of campaigning from its supporters.

Coincu will continue to update the situation related to Sam Bankman-Fried, you can find out more information through this article.

DISCLAIMER: The Information on this website is provided as general market commentary and does not constitute investment advice. We encourage you to do your own research before investing.

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