FTX agrees to buy BlockFi for up to $240 million

• FTX has announced an agreement with BlockFi that includes an option for the cryptocurrency exchange to acquire the lending platform.
•  The deal boosts the size of FTX’s assistance to BlockFi, which was $250 million last week.
•  Analysts have likened this “Lehman moment” for the digital asset industry.

FTX has announced an agreement with BlockFi that includes an option for the cryptocurrency exchange to acquire the lending platform for up to $240 million, as digital asset firms battle with the repercussions of the cryptocurrency market decline.

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Friday, BlockFi CEO Zac Prince announced on Twitter that the transaction included a $400 million revolving credit line from FTX US and an option to be purchased at a “variable price dependent on performance triggers.”

The deal boosts the size of FTX’s assistance to BlockFi, which was $250 million last week.

Prince stated, “We have not utilised this credit facility to date and have continued to run all of our products and services normally.”

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Sam Bankman-Fried, chief executive officer of FTX, has taken another effort to bolster crypto firms rocked by an extreme financial crisis gripping crypto markets, which analysts have likened to a “Lehman moment” for the digital asset industry.

The 30-year-old entrepreneur extended crypto broker Voyager Digital loans totaling $485 million in cash and bitcoin via his enterprises. Voyager has stated that it could lose more than $650 million it loaned to the failing hedge fund Three Arrows Capital, which went bankrupt this week due to the crypto credit crisis.

Prince rejected Thursday’s CNBC story that FTX was scheduled to spend approximately $25 million for BlockFi. According to Crunchbase data, the company was valued at $4 billion after a $500 million fundraising round in the summer of 2017.