Despite its relative youth (May 2019), the FTX exchange platform has managed to establish itself in the crypto sector, quickly rivaling a certain Binance and eclipsing a BitMEX in major legal difficulties. The crypto exchange even convinced even the ranks of institutional investors, managing to attract several hundred million dollars more for its development.
420 million more for FTX
Just 3 months ago, in July 2021, the FTX platform was already surprising the cryptosphere by successfully raising more than $900 million, in a second investment round (series B). But this success still didn’t seem to be enough.
As The Block notably reports, the crypto exchange founded by Sam Bankman-Fried has just repeated the feat, this time raising nearly $420.7 million. While the company was already valued at $18 billion last July, this valuation now rises to $25 billion.
There are a total of 69 institutional investors who would have bet without hesitation on the cryptos platform. Among them are Tiger Global, Ribbit Capital and funds and accounts “managed by BlackRock”.
FTX about to make a string of corporate acquisitions?
In addition to its core business centered on cryptomonetary derivatives, FTX has diversified heavily this year, for example by entering the booming non-fungible token (NFT) sector.
But FTX also recently acquired the futures platform LedgerX, to complement and expand its business. This new round of funding should serve FTX precisely to make further acquisitions, if we believe its founder and current CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried:
“Our market share has grown significantly since the beginning of the first round of funding (…) acquisitions could help the company expand its product line more quickly (…) I would probably lean towards another 3 or more [acquisitions]. Maybe two small, and three medium to large.”
Still according to its CEO, FTX could spend up to a total of $1 billion to make these business acquisitions, a real ogre.
In fact, even the idea of a Bitcoin ETF, signed FTX, does not seem at all impossible to Sam Bankman-Fried. It must be said that the immediate success of the ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BITO), the first to pass SEC approval, is enough to make any big player in the cryptosphere envious. And FTX is clearly one of them now.
