Vlad Tenev, CEO and co-founder of Robinhood Markets, Inc., is displayed on a screen during the IPO of his company at the Nasdaq Market site in Times Square in New York City, U.S., May 29 July 2021.
Brendan McDermid | Reuters
Shares of Robinhood jumped 22% on Friday, a day after the CEO of a major crypto exchange took a stake in the retail investment app.
According to a document filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, an entity called prisent Fidelity Technologies took a 7.6% stake in Robinhood worth $648 million earlier this month. The document also shows that Sam Bankman-Fried, the head of Bahamas-based crypto firm FTX, is the sole director and majority owner of prisent. FactSet data shows that these shares make prisent the third largest shareholder of Robinhood.
Shares of Robinhood closed at $8.56 on Thursday, the day the document was filed. This is about 77% less than the company’s July IPO price.
Bankman-Fried repurchased the shares because they “represent an attractive investment,” according to the filing, which also said he “intended to hold the Shares as an investment” and did not have “any interest in intends to take any action to alter or influence the control of the Issuer.”
However, he may “occasionally engage in discussions” with the board of directors.
“Of course, we think it’s also an attractive investment,” Robinhood’s communications team said in a statement. tweet Thursday night to respond to investment news.
Bankman-Fried may also consider “options to enhance shareholder value through, among other things, various strategic alternatives or operational or management initiatives” , according to the documentation. It also said he could buy more shares.
FTX is one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world. It offers derivatives products to more sophisticated traders, as well as spot trading, and has rivaled big names like Coinbase and Binance. It provides services in the United States through a separate organization, FTX US .
Although Robinhood started out in the stock market, it enjoyed great success when it launched its crypto trading platform in 2018. Cryptocurrency trading has since become vital to the bottom line. the company. In the fall, Robinhood revealed test a crypto wallet and said the waiting list for it has topped 1 million customers.
