Morgan Stanley plans takeover of South Korean crypto exchange Bithumb
The bank is looking to partner with shareholder Bident to acquire the crypto exchange, according to media reports.
South Korean media reports that American bank Morgan Stanley is planning to buy into South Korea’s market-leading crypto exchange Bithumb.
According to Aju News, the bank is already negotiating a joint acquisition of the crypto exchange with Bitcoin Bank and Bident, one of Bithumb’s largest shareholders, which holds nearly 10% of Bithumb Korea’s company shares.
In turn, another article from 19 March indicates that Morgan Stanley wants to invest between 300 – 500 billion South Korean won, which is the equivalent of 254 – 441 million US dollars. The relevant report quotes an anonymous source from Bithumb’s senior management stating that „Morgan Stanley is involved in the acquisition of Bithumb“.
„The reason Morgan Stanley is going through Bident is that Bident has a pre-emptive right to buy Bithumb Holdings,“ a second source confirmed to that effect.
Cointelegraph Markets analyst Joseph Young, who broke the news on Twitter, notes that Bithumb is targeting an enterprise valuation of US$2 billion through the sale.
Morgan Stanley is reportedly bidding for Bithumb, South Korea’s top crypto and bitcoin exchange, for $2 billion valuation
Slowly, then surely.
The explosiveness of institutional interest in this space right now is unprecedented.
– Joseph Young (@iamjosephyoung) March 19, 2021
The latest news comes just days after Cointelegraph reported that Morgan Stanley plans to make Bitcoin available to wealthy investors through three related investment funds, according to an „internal memo“ from the bank.
Devin Ryan of US investment firm JMP Securities predicts that the influential major bank’s decision will also encourage many other financial institutions to open up access to cryptocurrencies to their clients.
„The motivation for this will be, at best, missing out on a business opportunity and, at worst, suffering business damage by customers migrating to alternative service providers,“ as Ryan explains.
