Cryptocurrency exchange FTX U.S. is currently valued at $8 billion, after raising $400 million during its Series A funding round.
“What this raise means to us is that we are officially establishing ourselves on the stage of the largest competitors of cryptocurrency exchanges in the U.S., and signaling to the world that we are going to continue to expand very rapidly,” FTX US President Brett Harrison.
The capital injection will be used to further develop its user base, in addition to launching new business lines. Meanwhile, strategic investments and acquisitions are also on the table. Harrison also emphasized increasing headcount, saying “by having this capital, we’re able to go out and be competitive and hire the best people.”
Funding was led by Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp and Singapore’s Temasek Holdings, but also featured contributions from crypto investment firm Paradigm and Multicoin Capital. With the cryptocurrency market reaching $3 trillion in market capitalization late last year, research firm PitchBook estimates that venture capital firms spent $30 billion in crypto in 2021.
FTX moves
Based in Chicago, FTX US was founded in 2020 by former Wall Street high frequency trading executives. One of the leading crypto exchanges in the United States, the exchange competes with rivals COINBASE and . While neglecting to mention total overall user ship, according to the company’s latest figures users increased 52% in the third quarter last year, when it achieved an average daily volume of about $360 million. In an effort to expand into crypto futures and options trading, FTX US acquired LedgerX in October last year.
Earlier this month, FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried was summoned to appear before a session of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Financial Services. Committee Chair Maxine Waters had invited him, among other cryptocurrency executives, to the hearing in order to better understand how to approach cryptocurrency regulation. In anticipation of the hearing, FTX released a set of ten guiding principles for drafting regulations on the crypto market.
