Robinhood Markets (HOOD) shares surged higher Monday, before being halted from trading on the Nasdaq, amid reports that the cyrptocurrency group FTX is looking to purchase the online brokerage firm.
Bloomberg reported the FTX interest Monday, noting that its billionaire founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, has expressed interest in buying the Menlo Park, California-based group.
Robinhood shares had been trading firmly higher throughout much of the Monday session after analysts at Goldman Sachs lifted their rating on the group to "neutral" from "sell', noting that "net interest revenues derived from balance sheet cash, margin loans, bank sweeps, and client payables will benefit from incremental rate hikes."
Robinhood shares were marked 15.7% higher on the session following their brief trading halt to change hands at $9.26 each, a move that would still leave the stock down more than 73% for the year with a market value of just over $8 billion.
Robinhood, which found itself at the center of the meme-stock controversy last year when it froze access to certain customer accounts, said March quarter revenues would fall below $340 million, likely as a result of lower equity and cryptocurrency trading volumes.
For the three months ending in March, Robinhood had a net loss of $392 million on revenues of $299 million, with compensation expenses eating into its bottom line and monthly active users falling 10% from the three months ending in December.
"For most of our history, Robinhood has operated in a period of low interest rates, low inflation and rising markets, CEO Vlad Tenev told investors on April 28. "Our customers are now experiencing all three of these trends going in the opposite direction, perhaps for the first time in their lives."
