FTX Closes $900M Series B Round Valuing Exchange at $18B
$900 million is largest raise in crypto exchange history, according to FTX.
Sam Bankman-Fried, CEO, FTX
key takeaways
- Notable participants include Coinbase Ventures, Sino Global, Sequoia Capital, and the Paul Tudor Jones family.
- FTX is the second largest derivatives exchange, according to CoinGecko data.
FTX, based in Hong Kong but registered in Antigua, announced today that it has raised nearly $1 billion for its Series B round, valuing the company at $18 billion.
According to a release, 60 investors, most of them “crypto native”, participated in the $900 million Series B. Notable participants include Coinbase Ventures, Sino Global, Sequoia Capital, and the Paul Tudor Jones family.
CoinGecko data shows that the exchange processed roughly $5.9 billion in derivatives volume during the last 24 hours, with another roughly $1 billion in spot volume. During the past year the exchange has created new products like pre-IPO contracts, synthetic equities, commodities futures like oil and lumber, as well as election and event prediction markets.
FTX said that it’s planning to use the funds to expand its product offerings and US presence. In June, FTX’s regulatory-compliant US subsidiary announced that it was opening an office in Chicago — home of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.
FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried has publicly said that FTX.US is looking to get licensed where it can, and the fundraise will be used to ensure regulatory compliance.
In an interview with Bloomberg, Bankman-Fried said that he’s trying to get the exchange “in a position where we could go public relatively quickly if we wanted to.
“But that doesn’t mean we think that now is the time to do it. Instead, we basically want to have that option if it does seem right, without having any immediate plans to actually take advantage of that,” he continued.
In March, the company announced it had finalized a 19-year, $135 million deal with Miami-Dade County in Florida to take over naming rights of the county’s Miami Heat’s stadium, formerly known as American Airlines Arena. Recently, in June, the exchange expanded its sponsorship of US professional sports when it signed a sponsorship deal with Major League Baseball.
Also in June National Football League star and rising crypto influencer Tom Brady became an “ambassador” for FTX in exchange for an equity position in the company.
FTX’s eponymous token FTT, effectively a proxy for a public listing, reacted positively to the news rising approximately 5% according to CoinGecko. Binance’s token was down 6.8% during the same period, while Coinbase’s stock is up 1%.
