A 29-year old crypto billionaire has Goldman, CME Group in his crosshairs as his exchanges aims to surpass Coinbase

MW A 29-year old crypto billionaire has Goldman, CME Group in his crosshairs as his exchanges aims to surpass Coinbase

By Mark DeCambre

Should Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon be quaking in his boots?

That is the feeling that one might glean from Sam Bankman-Fried as he explains, in an interview with the Financial Times may be future acquisition targets for his relatively upstart crypto exchange FTX.

Bankman-Fried told the FT, in a recent interview, that his exchange, considered by some to be one of the fastest-growing digital platforms , the No. 1 and 2 largest cryto platforms in the world.

Then...watch out Goldman and CME.

"If we are the biggest exchange, [buying Goldman Sachs and CME] is not out of the question at all," Bankman-Fried was quoted by the FT saying.

If Bankman-Fried comes off as superbly ambitious, it is, perhaps, for a good reason.

The 29-year old, who is a U.S. citizen but resides in Hong Kong, is reportedly a graduate of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who boasts a net worth of $8.7 billion, according to Forbes. Forbes says that majority of his wealth is derived from his stake in FTX, which he launched a few years ago, as well as crypto token ownership, like bitcoin and Ether on the Ethereum blockchain, for example. He also launched Alameda Research, the quantitative crypto trading firm he founded in 2017, which looks after $2.5 billion.

Bankman-Fried is aiming for a valuation of $20 billion for FTX, in his most recent funding round, according to the FT .

Even still, Goldman's value is $127 billion, while CME Group's is $75 billion, as of Wednesday midday trade.

Coinbase, meanwhile, has a market capitalization of about $50 billion, if Bankman-Fried would consider lowering his sights. Coinbase went public back in April but has seen a tough road as a publicly traded company thus far.

Coinbase shares are down 28% over the past three months, performing better than bitcoin, which is down 48% over the same period. However, traditional assets are faring far better than their turbulent crypto counterparts in recent months, by comparison.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average is looking at a gain of more than 3% in the three-month period, the S&P 500 index and Nasdaq Composite indexes are both up nearly 6% over the same period.

-Mark DeCambre; 415-439-6400; AskNewswires@dowjones.com

$(END)$ Dow Jones Newswires

July 14, 2021 12:09 ET (16:09 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2021 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.