Robinhood Repurchases $605 Million Stake Formerly Owned by Sam Bankman-Fried

Robinhood Markets, the operator of the popular commission-free stock trading app, has successfully reacquired over 55 million of its own shares, which were initially taken by the Justice Department in January, following a contentious dispute over ownership.

These shares were originally obtained by Emergent Fidelity Technologies, a holding company predominantly owned by the disgraced crypto mogul Sam Bankman-Fried. Emergent Fidelity Technologies faced bankruptcy shortly after the collapse of the trading platform FTX and Bankman-Fried's broader crypto empire last autumn.

In the tumultuous aftermath of FTX's downfall, the ownership of the Robinhood stake was fiercely contested by four separate entities: FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried himself, the bankrupt crypto lender BlockFi (which argued that Emergent had used the shares as collateral for a loan), and an individual FTX creditor. Ultimately, Robinhood has successfully repurchased the stake from the United States Marshal Service, which had custody of the shares after their initial seizure.

As a result of this development, Robinhood's shares experienced a notable increase of over 3.5% on Friday.

Jason Warnick, Robinhood's Chief Financial Officer, expressed, "We are pleased to have concluded the purchase of these shares and are eagerly anticipating the execution of our growth plans in the best interests of our customers and shareholders."