• Vidente, the owner of South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb, said on Tuesday that he had been in talks about possibly selling his stake to FTX.
• Talks of another acquisition are part of the aggressive acquisition approach of FTX and its founder Sam Bankman-Fried amid a major downturn in the cryptocurrency market.
• If the deal with Bithumb goes through, FTX will gain more of a foothold in Asia and especially in South Korea, where crypto trading is very popular.

Vidente, the owner of South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb, said on Tuesday that he had been in talks about possibly selling his stake to FTX.

The company said it is looking at all possible options, including a full acquisition of Bithumb or joint management of the exchange.

However, no specific course of action has been decided, Vidente said.

Talks of another acquisition are part of the aggressive acquisition approach of FTX and its founder Sam Bankman-Fried amid a major downturn in the cryptocurrency market, which has seen billions of dollars in value. eviscerated in recent months.

Last month, FTX signed an agreement giving it the buy option from crypto lending company BlockFi at a maximum price of $240 million, significantly lower than the company’s previous valuation of $4.8 billion.

Earlier this year, FTX reached an agreement to acquire Japanese crypto exchange Liquid. If the deal with Bithumb goes through, FTX will gain more of a foothold in Asia and especially in South Korea, where crypto trading is very popular.

Bithumb is one of the largest stock exchanges in South Korea. At its peak in the past 24 hours, it processed just over $500 million in transactions, according to data from CoinGecko.

Bankman-Fried, meanwhile, has positioned itself as a lender of last resort as many crypto firms struggle.

Alameda Research, Bankman-Fried’s quantitative research firm, provided a loan to Voyager Digital. Voyager Digital finally filed for bankruptcy because of his exposure to Three Arrows Capitala hedge fund that plunged into bankruptcy.