Robinhood strikes deal with U.S. Marshal Service to buy back shares seized from Sam Bankman-Fried

Robinhood‘s proposed deal to repurchase shares seized from Sam Bankman-Fried by the U.S. Marshal Service (USMS) has been approved by a federal court in the Southern District of New York.

As a result, Robinhood will be allowed to buy back shares seized from Bankman-Fried’s Emergent Fidelity Technologies for $605.7 million, according to a statement released by the company.

After FTX and Emergent filed for bankruptcy protection last year, the U.S. government took custody of Bankman-Fried’s Robinhood shares. In February, Robinhood announced its plan to repurchase the stake.

Cash, stocks, and crypto

According to the agreement, Robinhood will buy back 55.3 million shares at $10.96 each, utilizing corporate cash from its balance sheet, which featured over $6 billion in cash and investments as of its latest quarterly report.

Bankman-Fried, who previously held a 7.6% stake in Robinhood, had expressed no intentions of gaining control over the trading platform. He had voiced enthusiasm about Robinhood’s business prospects, hinting at potential partnerships with the platform. However, the sudden bankruptcy of FTX led to the seizure and dissolution of his fortune, which was once estimated to be around $26 billion.

The FTX founder sought to retain ownership of Robinhood shares worth $450 million. He vehemently disputed the bankrupt exchange’s “legal claims” over the assets, insisting that he and Gary Wang were the primary holders of the shares, not Alameda Research or any other entities implicated in the FTX bankruptcy.

Robinhood has demonstrated robust strength within the crypto market, underlined by its substantial holdings in Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH). According to reports by Arkham Intelligence, Robinhood holds the fifth-largest wallet on Ethereum, amounting to $2.54 billion in ETH and more than 100 ERC-20 tokens collectively valued at over $177 million.

The trading app company also owns the third-largest Bitcoin wallet globally, holding about $3 billion worth of BTC.