Robinhood CEO Shuts Down FTX M&A Chatter, Says He Has Money to Do His Own Deals

The chief executive officer of Robinhood Markets (HOOD), the brokerage whose stock has lost about three-quarters of its value since its debut last year, tried to shut down speculation Wednesday that his firm might become a takeover target of crypto giant FTX.

FTX’s billionaire founder Sam Bankman-Fried took a 7.6% stake in Robinhood in May. Bloomberg reported in June that FTX was exploring whether it could purchase the company, bolstering FTX’s nascent efforts to offer stock trading to customers.

Vlad Tenev, the CEO of Robinhood, was asked Wednesday on an earnings conference call whether that might come to fruition.

“I love us as a standalone company,” he said. Tenev noted that Robinhood has about $6 billion of cash that could be used for acquisitions and that the company sees opportunities in the current environment to make acquisitions. In April, Robinhood said it was buying UK crypto platform Ziglu.

Tenev spoke a day after his company said it would eliminate about 23% of its staff, to streamline costs amid a continuing decline in monthly active users on the platform.

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