Robinhood buys back former Sam Bankman-Fried stake for $606 million

Quick Take

  • The crypto-friendly trading app Robinhood bought back over 55 million shares worth $605.7 million that used to be controlled by former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried. 

The crypto-friendly trading app Robinhood bought back a sizable portion of shares that were formerly owned by a company founded by Sam Bankman-Fried. 

The firm bought back 55.3 million shares at around $10.96 each for a total of $605.7 million. The purchase was completed on Aug. 31, with Robinhood buying them from the U.S. Marshal Service on behalf of the government, according to a Friday filing from the Securities and Exchange Commission. 

"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," Jason Warnick, Chief Financial Officer of Robinhood Markets, said in a statement

Former Sam Bankman-Fried stake

The U.S. Department of Justice had seized the shares from Emergent Fidelity Technologies, which was founded by former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, earlier this year. Bankman-Fried had tried to protect Emergent's Robinhood shares from debtors in January, stating in court filings that the funds would finance his legal defense. 

THE SCOOP

Keep up with the latest news, trends, charts and views on crypto and DeFi with a new biweekly newsletter from The Block's Frank Chaparro

By signing-up you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy
By signing-up you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Bankman-Fried had his $250 million bail revoked on Aug. 11 and is preparing for his October trial from a New York jail.


Disclaimer: The former CEO and majority shareholder of The Block has disclosed a series of loans from former FTX and Alameda founder Sam Bankman-Fried.

© 2023 The Block. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

About Author

MK Manoylov has been a reporter for The Block since 2020 — joining just before bitcoin surpassed $20,000 for the first time. Since then, MK has written nearly 1,000 articles for the publication, covering any and all crypto news but with a penchant toward NFT, metaverse, web3 gaming, funding, crime, hack and crypto ecosystem stories. MK holds a graduate degree from New York University's Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program (SHERP) and has also covered health topics for WebMD and Insider. You can follow MK on X @MManoylov and on LinkedIn.

Editor

To contact the editor of this story:
Nathan Crooks at
[email protected]