Voyager Digital Holdings, a centralised crypto lender, has [rejected an offer from FTX](https://cointelegraph.com/news/voyager-rejects-alameda-buyout-offer-as-it-harms-customers) and its investment arm Alameda Ventures to buy out its digital assets, claiming that the moves "are not value-maximizing" and may "harm clients."

In a rejection letter submitted in court on Sunday as part of its continuing bankruptcy procedures, Voyager lending attorneys condemned the offer made public by FTX, FTX US, and Alameda on Friday to buy out all of Voyager's assets and existing liabilities, leaving the defaulted loan to Three Arrows Capital (3AC).

## Bankman-Fried proposal plan

On Friday, the three businesses linked to FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried proposed a plan to Voyager in which Alameda would absorb all of Voyager's assets and utilise FTX or FTX US to sell and distribute them equally among subscribers affected by the bankruptcy.

Bankman-Fried stated in FTX's news release that his idea was a method for Voyager customers to recover their losses and move on from the platform:

“Voyager’s customers did not choose to be bankruptcy investors holding unsecured claims. The goal of our joint proposal is to help establish a better way to resolve an insolvent crypto business.”

In a late-night Twitter conversation, Bankman-Fried reiterated his firm's justification for asking to purchase Voyager. He claimed that Voyager's clients had "been through enough already," and that they should be able to retrieve their assets as quickly as possible because bankruptcy processes "can take years."

## Voyager Lending Response

On Sunday, in response to Bankman-Fried proposal plan, the Voyager lending claimed:

“The AlamedaFTX proposal is nothing more than a liquidation of cryptocurrency. It’s a low-ball bid dressed up as a white knight rescue.”

It also outlined six ways in which the proposal could "harm customers," including capital gains tax consequences, unfairly capping the value of each Voyager user's account at its July 5 value, and the effective elimination of the VGX token, which would "instantly destroy in excess of $100 million in value:"

The letter further rejected claims that AlamedaFTX had a better chance of obtaining purchase bids owing to the two companies' continuous partnerships, stating: "Nothing could be farther from the truth as indicated by this answer."

For more latest crypto news, Read [Latest Moni](/news).



Voyager lending rejects FTX’s buyout offer

The cryptocurrency trading platform FTX, which was co-founded by the billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried, is reportedly in advanced talks to buy the South Korean company Bithumb, according to a person familiar with the subject.

According to the individual, who asked not to be named since they were talking about something sensitive, the companies have been in conversations for several months now. A spokeswoman for Bithumb has stated that they are unable to confirm anything at this time.

The FTX spokeswoman that we reached out to declined to respond. [According to a person who spoke](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-07-22/bankman-fried-s-ftx-said-in-talks-to-buy-south-korea-s-bithumb) on the condition of anonymity to Bloomberg, the two exchanges have been negotiating the arrangement for a number of months now.

As of the time this article was being published, neither Bithumb nor FTX had responded to Forkast's request for comment on the topic. Sam Bankman-Fried, the co-founder and chief executive of FTX, has provided assistance to businesses like BlockFi and Voyager Digital when those companies have experienced a liquidity problem.

Bithumb is one of only five cryptocurrency exchanges in South Korea that have been granted permission to provide cash-to-cryptocurrency conversion services.

In South Korea, Bithumb was responsible for 17.1 percent of the entire cryptocurrency trade volume in 2017, second only to the Upbit exchange in that regard. By providing financial support to struggling businesses or acquiring them outright, Bankman-Fried intends to capitalize on the current downturn in the cryptocurrency industry.

This week, persons with knowledge of the situation stated that FTX and its American company FTX US are in talks to acquire fresh financing. If successful, this would put Bankman-Fried in a position to continue his deal-making frenzy, which has seen him commit almost one billion dollars so far.

According to the data provider CoinGecko, the cryptocurrency trading platform Bithumb, which was established in 2014, presently handles an average daily volume of trades worth approximately $569 million.

It was one of the crypto exchanges in South Korea whose premises were raided this week by local prosecutors as part of an expanding probe into Terraform Labs following the failure of the TerraUSD stablecoin in May. The investigation comes as a result of the collapse of the TerraUSD stablecoin. 

For more developments on the crypto news go to [Latest Moni](/news).


Bankman Fried's FTX is now in discussions to acquire Bithumb

Shares of Robinhood, a struggling stock trading platform, surged 14 percent on Monday after reports that crypto millionaire Sam Bankman-Fried's firm FTX is considering a possible acquisition of the company.
Amongst behemoths like Coinbase and Binance, FTX has also grown to be one of the most popular and largest ($10 billion average daily trading volume) cryptocurrency exchanges in the world. The UK market woke up to the news that FTX is "deliberating internally" on how to acquire Robinhood, Bloomberg reports.

It was around 3 p.m. ET when the news of FTX's possible interest in Robinhood came to light. About ten minutes later, trading had resumed. In a statement, Robinhood refused to respond to questions. A message left for FTX seeking comment was not immediately returned.
A takeover of Robinhood has not yet been formally approached by FTX, according to the sources, and the company has yet to make a final decision. In an email to Bloomberg, Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) stated, "We are enthused about Robinhood's business possibilities and the possible ways we could collaborate with them. However, there are [no active M&A discussions taking place with Robinhood](https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/bankman-frieds-ftx-seeking-path-buy-robinhood-bloomberg-news-2022-06-27/)”. 

Company documents show that Robinhood co-founders Vlad Tenev and Baiju Bhatt hold more than half of the company's voting power. Emergent Fidelity Technologies, a firm owned by SBF, purchased a 7.6 percent investment in Robinhood (HOOD) valued at $648 million in an SEC filing weeks earlier. The third-largest shareholder Emergent, a SBF founded company, was founded with the purpose of this purchase. Because it was "an attractive investment," the company stated in the petition. Subsequently, after the news was clarified the share price of HOOD started correcting towards market close yesterday. We will see if the sell off remains at the US market open.

This year, [Robinhood introduced a crypto wallet feature](https://www.monitalks.io/news/article/robinhood-crypto-wallet). It's been a rough year for investors in Robinhood, which has seen its stock fall by more than half since January, as the market struggles to recover from the fallout from the COVID-19 outbreak that made the business famous among retail "meme stock" traders.

According to Robinhood's first-quarter financial results released in April, the company lost $392 million. Annual revenue fell 43% to $299 million in the third quarter, and the business admitted that its monthly active user base had shrunk. The rapid expansion of the company's employees had resulted in job overlap and the company had to lay off 9% of its workers in that month.

## Can you use Robinhood and FTX in the UK?

Robinhood is registered with the SEC and only available for US citizens. There are no current plans reported by Robinhood to expand into the UK. "We are looking into the UK and thinking about expanding into the U.K. and we are just starting discussions with the FCA," Patrick Gruhn, head of FTX Europe told [CoinDesk](https://www.coindesk.com/business/2022/03/29/ftx-europe-in-talks-with-the-fca-to-expand-into-the-uk/) in an interview at the end of March.





FTX founder says no talks to buy Robinhood

[FTX](https://ftx.com/), a cryptocurrency exchange, wants to expand into the United Kingdom and has begun negotiations with regulators to dominate the European market.

## How Will This Happen?

FTX's market regulation concepts and plans include numerous critical areas. To begin, authorities could propose a principles-based approach to overseeing spot and derivatives crypto trading markets, leveraging current policy goals that apply to traditional capital and derivatives markets. Customer and investor protection, market integrity, financial crime prevention, and overall system safety and soundness are among the objectives. If enacted, regulations that promote these goals will apply equally to all markets for crypto assets trading.

Second, FTX and other crypto platforms have introduced significant trading innovations, which should be preserved under a sound framework. This is because they reduce risk, increase capital efficiency, and safeguard investors, all of which benefit the general public. Among the key innovations are:

•	Automated risk-management systems that ensure customer accounts trading multiple assets do not go net negative across customer positions.

•	24/7 trading hours, which reduces risk.

•	Permissioning a non-intermediated market structure gives all investors equal access to the market and helps minimize conflicts of interest.

•	Free-market data aligns the platform operator's interest with the investors.

Third, a useful framework would enable crypto platforms to provide both spot and derivatives trading on crypto assets under a single unified system. A single rule book and technological platform would control risks associated with all trading activity in customer accounts. Regulatory frameworks were formed in mature countries, such as the United States, in response to fragmented markets for securities, commodities, and derivatives on such assets. FTX has shown that combining markets for both assets and derivatives provide significant benefits to market participants.

Because of the risk-reduction and customer-protection benefits of this one rule book paradigm, public policy should allow it.

Regulators in countries with multiple market regulators, such as the US, should collaborate and use their authorities when appropriate to accommodate this paradigm for crypto assets. Simultaneously, legislators could remedy any remaining gaps not adequately addressed under current powers.

Fourth, an acceptable regulatory framework for crypto-asset market regulation should be market-structure agnostic and explicitly permit non-intermediated markets. It could also take a functional approach, requiring the platform operator to disclose policies and procedures addressing critical issues like:

•	asset custody

•	key platform features related to the lifecycle of a trade

•	reporting of market activity to supervisors

•	provisioning market data to platform users

•	ensuring adequate financial resources

•	ensuring stable coins used on the platform are subject to adequate standards

•	protecting against cyber-attacks and financial fraud

More [Business news](/news/category/crypto-business-news).


FTX Seeks UK and Europe Expansion

The adoption of blockchain technology continues apace with new and exciting avenues, presenting themselves on a weekly basis.

There is no more exciting environment than virtual reality and the metaverse right now. It seems as if these two worlds are the perfect fit for blockchain technology.

## GameFI Eco-System Fund

With this in mind, cryptocurrency trading giant FTX released details today of a brand new investment fund targeting [Gamefi](https://hub.gamefi.org/#/), the Metaverse and Web 3.0 companies. As a joint venture between FTX, Solana Ventures and LightSpeed Venture Partners, the ‘GameFi Eco-System Fund’ is allocating $100 million to invest in gaming studios, technology companies and ‘other projects’.

## Web 3.0

Web 3.0 can be thought of as the next evolutionary step of the internet. Through the use of artificial intelligence, decentralised networks and blockchain technology, the internet is set to undergo a revolutionary transformation. With many people viewing the evolution of Web 3.0 as less than 2 years away, the launch of the ‘GameFi Eco-System Fund’ is evidence that large investors are taking this space seriously.

This new version of the internet will be faster, fairer and have less need for central points of control and authority. Now, artificial intelligence and machine learning take the leg work out of administering and authenticating internet content.

## Play to Earn

Amy Wu of LightSpeed Venture Partners said gaming was a massive opportunity to ‘bring the next billion users to Web 3.0’. The global gaming market is currently estimated to be worth around $100 billion. Many analysts are expecting those figures to double in the next two years due to new concepts, which appeal to a much wider audience.

Mobile games like Axie Afinity and HeroFi have shown how blockchain technology and NFTs can be successfully incorporated into the gaming universe. Play to Earn gaming concepts have become huge hits in the Far East. Users can generate, trade and earn cryptocurrency by simply playing games on their mobile phones.

More [GameFi news](/news/category/gamefi).


‘GameFi Eco-System’ Fund $100m launch

#FTX

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Voyager lending rejects FTX’s buyout offer

Bankman Fried's FTX is now in discussions to acquire Bithumb

FTX founder says no talks to buy Robinhood

FTX Seeks UK and Europe Expansion

‘GameFi Eco-System’ Fund $100m launch

Blackrock investing strengthens crypto’s position

Ankr receives significant investment from Binance

How to exchange Monero (XMR) to GBP in the UK