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The FTX crypto exchange has officially closed its Series B funding round, attracting $ 900 million from a range of investors.
Launched in 2019, FTX has grown into one of the most visible places of exchange to the public, with its eye-catching sponsorship deals with Major League Baseball and the TSM esports team, among others.
Fundraising brings names to its capitalization table from across the spectrum of crypto investing. Participants include SoftBank, Sequoia Capital, Paradigm, Lightspeed, Third Point, Alan Howard, Izzy Englander, and the Paul Tudor Jones family, among others. A total of 60 investors participated in the FTX increase.
The $ 900 million fundraising gives FTX a post-trade valuation of $ 18 billion, according to the company. It represents the biggest crypto investment round to date, eclipsing Circle’s $ 440 million deal reached earlier this year, which was previously the largest VC crypto deal.
The Block first reported in May that FTX was heading towards completing a major funding round of up to $ 1 billion.
“At the end of the day, I’m pretty excited,” CEO Sam Bankman-Fried said in an interview with The Block. “It took a while to explain the vision of the company to some of these investors who are not native to crypto. But the business model is quite simple.
FTX earns money from crypto trading fees. It has also spread to other areas, including stocks and commodities through derivative contracts. This month, the company recorded $ 19.3 billion in volumes, according to The Block’s data dashboard.
And with the new capital in hand, FTX is looking to break into a common industry on Wall Street: white label software.
Bankman-Fried, a former Jane Street trader, said the company has already been introduced to potential clients. “Whether it’s a neo-bank looking to offer crypto trading or a payment portal, everything we have is available through API,” he told The Block.
The new capital will also allow FTX to strengthen its existing approval agreements. Bankman-Fried said it is not clear at this point to what extent these deals impact his bottom line, but anecdotally he said that “50% of the way people hear about FTX “comes from these agreements.
© 2021 The Block Crypto, Inc. All rights reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial or other advice.
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