FTX held the acquisition talks with platforms Public.com, Apex, and Webull after previously acquiring crypto derivatives trading platform LedgerX last year so let’s read more today in our latest cryptocurrency news.

FTX held the acquisition talks with three brokerage startups at least. The second biggest derivatives exchange was speaking with Public.com, Webull, and Apex Clearing but if the reports are true, it can be a sign that FTX is making another push into stock trading. Last week, FTX CEO Sam Bankman Fried disclosed in an SEC filing that he increased his stake in Robinhood to 7.6%, and on that day, he made the transaction so the HOOD shares closed at $9.81 and made his stake in the company worth $554 million.

HOOD was trading at $9.94 per share after dropping to $8.15 during the worst market meltdowns two weeks ago. Its market cap is now set at $8.7 billion. The three companies are registered brokerages as well with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority which means they can purchase and sell securities like stocks on their client’s behalf. Public.com and Webull are also registered as investment advisers.

The investment adviser is allowed to provide securities investment advice to the clients so people with these licenses tend to do busienss as n asset, portfolio, or wealth managers. Apex clearing provided clearing and custody services for the Robo advisors Betterment and Wealthfront while Webull was considering an initial public offering at a valuation of $300 million to $400 million. Public.com started offering crypto assets on the paltform a year ago and got its BitLicense application approved to offer the services to the New York Residents. The gaming marketplace thorugh acquisitions Is a strategy FTX used before as last year we saw that it agreed to acquire derivatives from the LedgerX company. However now FTX halted the acquisition talks with the companies and the FTX CEO added:

“This is probably one of the most exciting announcements we’ve ever had.”

As recently reported, FTX US launched stock trading and will allow users to fund their accounts with USDC. The customers will be able to buy stocks and ETFs in the crypto app. The offering is being rolled out to select customers from a waitlist and the exchange even announced that customers can trade stocks and ETFs and making it the first native exchange to offer equities on the platform.