FTX Acquires Bitvo – Canadian Trading Platform

FTX acquires Bitvo, a Canadian trading platform in its bid to expand into North America so let’s read more today In our latest cryptocurrency news.

The announcement came on the heels of the FTX US head Brett Harrison who expressed the priority of acquiring the crypto company. FTX acquires Bitvo which marks the expansion plans into North America and will serve the market as it is integrated into the FTX global team. The acquisition will be expectedly completed in Q3 of 2022 and it is now subject to regulatory approval and customary closing conditions.

Bitvo was founded in 2018 and it is registered as a restricted dealer under the securities laws of the provinces in Canada. It is also registered as an exchange with the Canadian watchdog – the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada and the company is eligible to offer trading services in the country. Bitvo’s workforce will be integrated into the FTX global team after the acquisition.

The CEO of FTX commented that the new acquisition is a continued journey of a global expansion and it is working with regulators constantly. The crypto giant expanded its services beyond the main markets and it even launched a Japan-based exchange targeting the domestic crypto traders and investors as well as supporting fast deposits and withdrawals of the Japanese yen. SBF also noted the importance of working in compliance with the local regulators and he is known for his support of working with regulators to address the gaps that he sees necessary for internationally expanding the company.

FTX US is the US branch of the exchange and it revealed that when it comes to the acquisition, the company prioritizes companies that can bring a new user base and get their needed licenses.

As recently reported, The controversial events around Celsius Network continue unfolding as the team unstaked millions of dollars in crypto from Aave and moved them to FTX but so far, the proejct hasn’t provided a reason why. The transaction started during the weekend with the first batch seeing 3500 WBTC and 50,000 ETH which continued to increase in the next few hours. The on-chain data shows that Celsius sent over 100,000 ETH to FTX in the past few days and 9500 WBTC as well but the staking and lending platform transferred other tokens as well like MATIC, UNI, FTT, and more. Overall, the total amount sent is around $320 million.