Sam Bankman-Fried, the billionaire founder and CEO of cryptocurrency change FTX has acquired a considerable 7.6% stake within the fashionable on-line brokerage, Robinhood.

The information was properly acquired by the market, with Robinhood’s (HOOD) inventory value initially hovering over 30% in after hours buying and selling. On the time of writing the value has settled to a 24% general acquire.

In keeping with a securities submitting made with the Securities and Change Fee on Thursday, Bankman-Fried bought a complete of $648 million in Robinhood shares at a mean value of $11.52. The purchases disclosed by Bankman-Fried reportedly started in mid-March and continued via till Wednesday.

Within the securities submitting, Bankman-Fried made it clear that he had, “no intention of taking any motion towards altering or influencing the management of [Robinhood],” and that the transfer was just because he noticed Robinhood as an “engaging funding.”

Robinhood’s communications group took to Twitter to emulate what Bankman-Fried mentioned in his securities submitting — tweeting to their 82,000 followers, “In fact we predict it’s a lovely funding too.”

In fact we predict it’s a lovely funding too. Now we have the perfect buyer base, are introducing nice new merchandise, and now we have the group to ship.

— Robinhood Comms (@RobinhoodComms) May 12, 2022

The transaction was executed by an Antiguan agency referred to as Emergent Constancy Applied sciences Ltd, of which Bankman-fried is the only real director and majority proprietor.

The announcement appears to have offered Robinhood buyers with some short-term reduction, after its inventory value reached a brand new all time low of $7.73 on March 12, simply someday after the brokerage agency revealed that its crypto transaction income fell 39% year-over-year (YOY).

Robinhood has been taking vital strides into the cryptocurrency market, as income from stock-related buying and selling has fallen drastically. Robinhood at the moment offers customers with crypto buying and selling capabilities, bringing it into speedy competitors with different US-based cryptocurrency exchanges similar to Coinbase and Gemini.

In keeping with Robinhood’s Q1 2022 report, roughly 18% of its Q1 internet income got here from crypto-related transactions, nonetheless transaction-based income from cryptocurrencies decreased 39% YOY to $54 million, in comparison with $88 million within the Q1 2021.

Robinhood axes virtually 1 in 10 workers members as inventory hits all-time low

In April final yr, Robinhood introduced plans to broaden into cryptocurrency brokerage by buying UK-based crypto firm Ziglu.

Earlier this month, Robinhood additionally rolled out its extremely anticipated crypto pockets to 2 million waitlisted customers, outlined plans to combine the Lightning Community, and listed Shiba Inu (SHIB) after months of campaigning from its supporters.