Robinhood to buy back 55 million shares previously owned by Sam Bankman-Fried for $605.7 million

Online broker Robinhood will buy back 55 million shares of the company for $605.7 million, which formerly belonged to the founder of the collapsed FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried. This is disclosed in a filing with the SEC. SEC.

The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York approved the settlement on August 28.

Following the collapse of the crypto exchange, the U.S. Department of Justice froze the former head’s securities, according to court filings.

The deal was completed on May 13, 2022 — an FTX-affiliated entity purchased 56.28 million shares of the online broker for $648.29 million. The assets were held by ED&F Man Capital Markets.

In December 2022, Bankman-Fried testified that, together with platform co-founder Gary Wang, they formed a company Emergent Fidelity Technologies to buy a 7.6% stake in the financial platform.

Robinhood first announced plans to return the shares in February 2023. At that time, the company’s board approved the deal and earmarked funds for it.

MarketWatch reports that, by the start of Friday trading, the firm’s shares had risen 3.9%, trading at $11.31.

Earlier, analysts linked Robinhood to the third-largest Bitcoin address — 26,081 BTC (~$3.09 billion).

In the second quarter, the online broker’s revenue from digital-asset operations declined 18.5% year over year to $31 million. The company held $12 billion in cryptocurrency on behalf of clients.