SBF has been left empty-handed after Robinhood repurchased its stake.
Robinhood, the popular trading platform for both cryptocurrencies and stocks, has successfully repurchased 55,273,469 of its shares, previously owned by Sam Bankman-Fried, the former CEO of FTX.
The shares were acquired for approximately $606 million, according to an official filing submitted to the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
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On August 31st, Robinhood announced the finalized transaction through a blog post, indicating that the process followed compliance with regulations set by the United States SEC.
It is worth noting that the shares had been held by Sam Bankman-Fried and FTX co-founder Gary Wang via their holding company, Emergent Fidelity Technologies. In January, the stock was seized by the US Department of Justice.
The buyback was hardly a surprise. Robinhood’s board of directors had already signaled their approval of this deal in the company’s Q4 2022 report. Additionally, an SEC filing dated August 30th stated that the US District Court for the Southern District of New York cleared the acquisition, marking it as “free and clear of any claims, interests, liens and encumbrances.”
The agreement for repurchasing was carried out in collaboration with the US Marshals Service.
Robinhood CFO Jason Warnick commented on the transaction, saying:
We are happy to have completed the purchase of these shares and look forward to executing on our growth plans on behalf of our customers and shareholders.
It is noteworthy that Emergent Fidelity Technologies filed for bankruptcy in February amidst a slew of legal complications involving crypto lending firm BlockFi and FTX creditor Yonathan Ben Shimon.
However, following the news, Robinhood’s stock price experienced a 4% hike, pushing from $10.85 to $11.34. At the time of writing, the stock price settled at $11.11.
The repurchase of over 55 million Robinhood shares previously held by Sam Bankman-Fried is a significant development for the trading platform. The transaction was not only financially substantial but also indicative of the company’s determined focus on growth and shareholder value.
