«No More Bailouts» — FTX Founder SBF

Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of crypto exchange FTX, is looking to raise fresh funding for acquisitions amid the crypto winter, he said on Tuesday. Moreover, he clarified that the company will no longer pursue bailout-type acquisitions. SBF plans to boost retail users with new acquisitions that the crypto exchange neglected until now.

SBF Won’t Focus on Bailout-Type Acquisitions

During The Wall Street Journal’s Tech Live conference on October 25, Sam Bankman-Fried said FTX planning a new funding round to raise capital at a valuation of $32 billion. SBF plans to continue his acquisition strategy during the crypto winter. However, he would no longer be focusing on bailout-type acquisitions.

SBF plans to use the capital raised from the funding round to prominently focus on the retail user base. He believes acquisitions offer an opportunity to increase the number of retail users. Crypto exchange FTX has so far lacked massive retail investors.

“We don’t see that much of a point in going out and trying to make an acquisition to try and get highly-engaged crypto traders. Those are people who know who we are. What we would be looking at more would be on the retail side.”

FTX has so far bailed out two crypto lenders, which significantly increased trading volume on the crypto exchange. SBF said FTX has five times more crypto trading volume than crypto exchange Coinbase. However, Coinbase has 20 times more users than FTX, indicating a lack of influence on the retail side. Thus, SBF thinks it’s time to focus on retail investors.

Meanwhile, Ravi Mhatre, a partner at VC firm Lightspeed Venture Partners, said retail investors have lost interest in sectors such as DeFi due to the liquidity crisis and falling crypto prices. Venture capital firms have been spending less time investing in such sectors. However, both SBF and Mhatre remain optimistic about the long-term potential of crypto and blockchain technology.

Source