Robinhood Expands Global Reach with $200M Bitstamp Deal

The deal was paid entirely in cash, and brought more than 50 licenses and a strong base of 5,000 institutional and 50,000 retail clients within Robinhood’s reach. Bitstamp generated $95 million in revenue over the past year, and will now integrate with Robinhood’s systems including its Legend platform and Smart Exchange Routing. This follows Robinhood’s May announcement to acquire Canadian platform WonderFi. Meanwhile, FalconX recently acquired a majority stake in Monarq Asset Management, formerly linked to FTX, to scale its institutional asset management services. In the NFT space, Orange Cap Games acquired the Moonbirds, Mythics, and Oddities collections from Yuga Labs, tripling Moonbirds’ floor price post-announcement. Robinhood Completes Bitstamp Acquisition Robinhood Markets, Inc. officially completed its $200 million acquisition of Bitstamp, a Luxembourg-based cryptocurrency exchange. The deal was initially announced in June 2024, and was paid entirely in cash. It also adds a set of over 50 licenses and registrations to Robinhood’s expanding crypto operations. Bitstamp serves more than 5,000 institutional clients and around 50,000 retail users, which greatly strengthens Robinhood’s global presence by opening access to markets in Europe, the UK, and Asia. Bitstamp’s trading activity is predominantly driven by institutional clients, which aligns perfectly with Robinhood’s strategic ambitions. The acquisition also brings a sizable operational boost as Bitstamp recorded $95 million in revenue over the past 12 months leading up to April 30, while Robinhood’s crypto division reported $252 million in Q1 2025 alone. Robinhood said it has already started integrating Bitstamp into its broader ecosystem, with the exchange platform now linked to Robinhood Legend and its Smart Exchange Routing system. The company expects to incur approximately $65 million in related costs over the rest of 2025 as the integration progresses. Robinhood’s crypto expansion doesn’t stop there. On May 13, the company announced its agreement to acquire Canadian crypto platform WonderFi for approximately $179 million. Robinhood Crypto general manager Johann Kerbrat explained that more acquisitions could be on the table if they offer a pathway to accelerate development timelines by 18 to 24 months. Robinhood share price over the past 24 hours (Source: Google Finance ) Shares of Robinhood (HOOD) responded positively to the developments by closing up 2.77% at $67.98 on June 2, with a further 0.90% gain in after-hours trading. CEO Vladimir Tenev also believes that tokenization of real-world assets, particularly private equities, will be a major focus for Robinhood moving forward. According to Tenev, tokenizing assets like OpenAI and SpaceX shares could drastically simplify and speed up secondary market transactions, and could potentially unlock huge economic value for the crypto sector in the US. FalconX Acquires Stake in FTX-Linked Monarq Crypto prime brokerage FalconX also recently acquired a majority stake in the parent company of Monarq Asset Management, a Cayman Islands-registered hedge fund that was previously tied to the now-defunct FTX exchange. The deal was first reported by Bloomberg on June 2, and it forms part of FalconX’s growing push to broaden its asset management capabilities and deepen its reach into the institutional investor space. While the financial details of the acquisition were not shared, the strategic value lies in Monarq’s legacy infrastructure and client relationships. FalconX plans to leverage this to expand its services beyond its existing hedge fund and asset management clientele. Monarq Asset Management was formerly known as MNNC Group, and before that, it operated as LedgerPrime—once a key component of the FTX empire. The fund’s evolution was similar to the industry trend of firms distancing themselves from the fallout of FTX’s collapse while repurposing its assets and networks. FalconX’s acquisition happened at a time when it is actively scaling its operations. In January, the company acquired Arbelos Markets, a crypto derivatives startup. In May, it entered into a partnership with Standard Chartered to boost institutional crypto banking services. FalconX sees the Monarq acquisition as a means to grow its institutional offerings by scaling quantitative investment models and adding to its team’s capabilities. It also reflects a broader strategic vision of positioning FalconX as a full-service provider for institutional crypto exposure—combining execution, custody, and asset management under one roof. Despite its ambitious expansion, FalconX has faced regulatory scrutiny . In May of 2024, the firm agreed to pay $1.8 million in penalties and disgorgement to the US. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) for failing to register appropriately. As part of the settlement, the company ceased offering services to US residents. FalconX website Nevertheless, FalconX continues to grow globally. It claims to be the largest digital asset prime brokerage in the world by facilitating over $1.5 trillion in trading volume and offering access to 94% of global digital asset liquidity. OCG Acquires Moonbirds from Yuga Labs Meanwhile, crypto gaming startup Orange Cap Games (OCG) acquired the intellectual property rights to the Ethereum-based Moonbirds NFT collection from Yuga Labs. The deal was announced on May 30, and it includes not just Moonbirds, but also its sister collections, Mythics and Oddities. Although the financial terms of the acquisition were not revealed, the move now positions OCG as the new custodian of a once-iconic NFT brand that has seen both dramatic highs and lows in market value. (Source: X ) Yuga Labs initially acquired these collections in February of 2023 as part of its acquisition of PROOF, the company behind Moonbirds. Since then, however, Yuga has been offloading several of its IP assets due to broader market shifts as NFT trading volumes stay low. Yuga co-founder Greg Solano commented on the decision, and explained that Moonbirds deserved a dedicated team. He also praised Orange Cap Games as an ideal steward to lead the brand into its next phase. Despite the sale, Moonbirds will still be featured in Yuga’s Otherside metaverse, and any new on-chain assets developed by OCG will remain on Ethereum or migrate to Yuga’s ApeChain, a layer-2 network. The market reacted quickly to the news, with the floor price of Moonbirds tripling to 0.9 ETH after the announcement. Nonetheless, this is a far cry from its April 2022 peak of 38.5 ETH, which is a near 90+% drop from its all-time high. This sale is part of a larger divestiture by Yuga Labs. Earlier in May, the firm sold the rights to CryptoPunks to the Infinite Node Foundation, and in February, it parted with Meebits. Last year, Yuga also sold off IP rights to its gaming projects HV-MTL and Legends of the Mara. This strategic reorientation happened as the broader NFT sector shows signs of revival. According to recent market data , unique NFT buyers jumped 50% in May to 936,000, while trading volume rose by 15% to $430 million compared to April.

Source: Coinpaper