FTX said to be in talks to acquire South Korean crypto exchange Bithumb. The price of other cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, has fallen substantially and resulted in an exit from the market above $2T. As a result, various cryptocurrency companies have faced huge losses in terms of commercial operations. One of the largest exchanges in South Korea – Bithumb is one of them. Crypto derivatives exchange FTX is reportedly in talks to purchase Bithumb, one of South Korea’s top five cryptocurrency exchanges.
The two exchanges have been discussing the deal for several months, according to an anonymous source who told Bloomberg.
Neither Bithumb nor FTX has responded officially comment on the matter. FTX cofounder and chief executive Sam Bankman-Fried has supported firms that suffered a liquidity crisis such as BlockFi and Voyager Digital.
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Bithumb, founded in 2014, currently processes around $569 million worth of trades on its platform a day on average, according to data provider CoinGecko. It was among South Korean crypto exchanges whose offices were raided this week by local prosecutors as part of a widening investigation into Terraform Labs following the May collapse of the TerraUSD stablecoin.
Bithumb is among the only five crypto exchanges that are licensed in South Korea to operate cash-to-crypto services.
Bithumb was responsible for 17.1% of total crypto trade volume in South Korea last year, only behind Upbit exchange.Time will tell whether SBF’s FTX exchange will acquire south korean Bithumb or not.