FTX, a cryptocurrency exchange, saw its value rise to $32 billion in a new funding round that was announced on Monday. This shows that investors are still interested in the sector, even though they are worried about a big drop in crypto prices.
This is the third time the company has raised money in the last nine months. It raised $400 million in a Series C round on Monday.
A digital currency exchange called FTX, which sells derivatives as well as digital currencies, is one of the world’s biggest in terms of how big it is. A long time ago, it was a little-known company. Now, it’s a big player in the new market, competing with the likes of Coinbase and Binance.
The company doesn’t let people trade in the United States. That is done by FTX U.S., which is FTX’s sister exchange in the U.S. It was worth $8 billion last week when FTX U.S. made a $400 million investment in the company.
Every single person who owns an affiliate of FTX, which includes Singaporean state investor Temasek, SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2, and Tiger Global, helped the company raise money for its own fund.
It has now raised more than $2 billion in venture capital. FTX has a war chest at a time when digital currency prices have dropped a lot. Bitcoin has lost 46% of its value since November when it was at almost $69,000. Other cryptocurrencies have lost even more, and they have lost even more.
Because of that, there are fears that the market may be on the verge of a much worse downturn known as “crypto winter.” Late 2017 and early 2018 were the last time bitcoin went down as much as 80% from its record high price. In general, crypto exchanges don’t like when there are bear markets because it means fewer people use them. Read also; Increasing Digital Payments in Africa for a Cashless World
I don’t think there will be a long-term crypto winter, says FTX’s CEO and co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried. Expectations about interest rates have changed, and that’s been moving the crypto markets. As a result, it’s had an effect on the whole market as well.
Indeed, stocks have taken a beating in recent weeks, with the NASDAQ down 11% year-to-date as investors reassess tech stocks because they are worried about higher interest rates from the Fed. Coinbase, one of FTX’s competitors that are publicly traded, has seen its shares fall 46% since it went public last April.
Bankman-Fried said that when he was asked if his company could go public, “it’s something we’ve talked about. The answer isn’t clear. I could see it happen, and I could also see it not happen. Neither of us wants to do it.
It’s not clear if this is something that the company will do. However, he said the company will “try and be ready, in case it is something we want to do.” Those preparations would include having the company’s accounts audited and looking at possible ways to list the company, said the man.
Even though the crypto market has seen a lot of growth in the last few years, regulators have become warier of digital assets because they don’t want them to be used for scams and other illegal things.
Bankman-Fried said that a big part of FTX’s job is to get licenses in a lot of different countries. Its U.S. arm can now sell derivatives products like futures and options, which let investors bet on changes in the price of an asset. These products let them do this. Bankman-Fried said that by the end of this year, FTX’s international business will be licensed in “the bulk of the Western world.”
The company plans to use the extra money to keep making new products. There are non-fungible tokens, which are the crypto world’s version of collectible items. Last year, FTX launched a marketplace where people could buy and sell them. Now, Bankman-Fried says, the company is starting to license its software to other businesses in the fintech and gaming fields.
Users on FTX have grown 60% since October 2021, when it last raised money at a $25 billion valuation. Daily trading volumes rose 40% to $14 billion. The company recently set up a $2 billion fund to invest in crypto start-ups. Read more; The best deals you can get on the Surface Pro 8
Who is Sam Bankman-Fried?
Three years ago, Bankman-Fried and another co-founder, Gary Wang, started FTX with the help of their friends.
A trader at the Wall Street firm Jane Street may have been Bankman-first Fried’s job. The crypto boss, on the other hand, is not your typical finance person. He eats mostly vegan food, wears t-shirts and shorts, and lives on a sunny island in a sunny place.
He, on the other hand, has one thing in common with traditional financial people: long hours at the office. Bankman-Fried said in the past that he could get by with only four hours of sleep a night. Now, “a little more,” but not much.
FTX’s most recent investment makes it one of the most valuable private crypto start-ups in the world. At the age of 29, Bankman-Fried is one of the richest people in crypto, according to Forbes. He has a net worth of more than $22 billion, which is a lot of money. With his shares now worth more, that number is likely to go up even more.
Bankman-Fried made a lot of money with bitcoin trading at his quantitative trading firm Alameda Research. He used arbitrage, which is a way to make money when there are big differences in the prices of the same thing in different markets.
