In a recent interview, FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried said that the cryptocurrency exchange platform could issue its own stablecoin in the near future. However, the billionaire said that this would be done through a partnership, without revealing more about it.
Update of October 28 at 10:00: on October 28, Sam Bankman-Fried is on his words and wanted to clarify the situation with a touch of humor on Twitter:
“To clarify: we’re in the process of determining what we’re going to do on stablecoins; it could be anything or nothing, and might *or might not* involve partnerships, shows, hula hoops, etc. (one of these is less likely than the others.) “
FTX may soon launch its stablecoin
In a recent interview with The Big Whale newsletter, FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried confirmed that the cryptocurrency exchange is already working on issuing its own stablecoin.
Stablecoins, a term that translates to “stable currency”, are cryptocurrencies that are backed by the price of another asset, such as the dollar. Thus, a stablecoin is inherently more impervious to market volatility than a traditional cryptocurrency. To learn more, read our presentation dedicated to stablecoins.
Without giving a real time scale, the billionaire did say that stablecoin could see the light of day in the near future:
“I think you’ll probably hear something from us about it in the not too distant future. “
Sam Bankman-Fried is said to have confirmed his desire to create his own stablecoin, which he had already hinted at with a pinch of salt on 23 October in a tweet:
3) At this point, we’re probably the largest unaligned players in the stablecoin ecosystem. Bybit, the various blockchains, tradfi, and market makers are as well.
(Worth asking what the futures are of USDK, HUSD, etc.)
– SBF (@SBF_FTX) October 23, 2022
“At this point, we are probably the biggest non-aligned players in the stablecoin ecosystem. So are Bybit, the various blockchains, traditional finance and market makers. “
Note that according to SBF, stablecoin is still under consideration and stablecoin will probably only see the light of day in a partnership with another entity, as Coinbase was able to do with Circle to issue USDC, for example.
Eh to clarify: we are figuring out what we’re doing on stablecoins; it could be anything or nothing, and could *or could not* involve partnerships, issuance, hula hoops, etc. (One of those is less likely than the others.)
– SBF (@SBF_FTX) October 28, 2022
FTX to continue investing
When asked if FTX is still raising money, Sam Bankman-Fried said that is indeed the case, even though the platform already has billions of dollars to make acquisitions. More specifically, he says FTX is “in a strong position” to make small and medium-sized acquisitions.
Indeed, bear markets are times of opportunity for the best performing players in the industry, and FTX is a good example of this, having recently won the bid to buy the assets of Voyager Digital for no less than $1.4 billion.
Regarding a possible takeover of the Robinhood platform, which has been rumoured for a few months now, FTX’s CEO has expressed some reservations:
“That’s a great question! There are two ways for a company to grow: either it buys companies or it continues to grow internally. The most important thing is to continue to grow, to attract users, whichever way you do it. We could buy a company like Robinhood, but that’s not what we’re looking at right now. Our challenge is to keep growing with organic growth.”
