October 21st, 2021 at 12:30 pm UTC · 4 min read
FTX Trading Ltd. (“FTX” or “the Company”), owner and operator of FTX.COM, a leading global cryptocurrency exchange, today announced the closing of a $420,690,000 Series B-1 fundraise, increasing the valuation of the Company to $25 billion. The round saw the participation of 69 investors, including Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board, via its Teachers’ Innovation Platform, Temasek, Sequoia Capital, Sea Capital, IVP, ICONIQ Growth, Tiger Global, Ribbit Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners and funds and accounts managed by BlackRock.
The Company also disclosed that in addition to the B-1 fundraise, Temasek had participated in the previously announced Series B, and updated the total amount of that raise from $900 million to $1 billion.
Coming three months after FTX’s Series B, this financing round is a testament to the Company’s continued growth and will allow FTX to expand into new jurisdictions, improve upon its current offerings, and further establish itself as a marketplace leader.
Sam Bankman-Fried, CEO of FTX, commented on the news:
“We founded FTX two years ago with the idea of creating a better financial marketplace. Today we are focused on establishing FTX as a trustworthy and innovative exchange by regularly engaging with regulators around the world, and constantly seeking opportunities to enhance our offerings for digital asset investors. For this round, we capitalized on those strides and were able to partner with investors that prioritize positioning FTX as the world’s most transparent and compliant cryptocurrency exchange.”
FTX has grown significantly since its initial $1 Billion Series B round back in July 2021, with the Company’s user base growing 48% and its average trade volume increasing 75%, now averaging $14B per day in daily volume. Since July, FTX established its global headquarters in the Bahamas and secured licenses under new regulatory frameworks in the Bahamas and Gibraltar. Additionally, the Company’s US-affiliate, FTX US, acquired CFTC regulated digital currency futures & options exchange and clearinghouse, LedgerX, and has recently launched a global NFT marketplace, FTX NFTs.
Ramnik Arora, Head of Product at FTX, said:
“The additional capital and group of investors will let us provide the experience our users deserve and address other adjacent market opportunities including equities, prediction markets, NFTs and videogame partnerships. We expect to make strategic investments designed to grow the business and expand our regulatory coverage.”
Olivia Steedman, Senior Managing Director, TIP:
“Teachers’ Innovation Platform (TIP) invests in innovative companies that use technology to help shape new categories. As a global, technology-driven innovator in the financial sector, FTX fits well with our mandate. We look forward to working with FTX’s management team in supporting the continued growth of the company.”
Alfred Lin, General Partner at Sequoia Capital:
“Sam Bankman-Fried is a special founder who is ambitious and daring enough to build the future of crypto by establishing FTX as the global exchange with the best overall product offering and leveraging the world’s crypto rails to build the future of finance. We are thrilled to partner with FTX on their next phase of growth.”
Divesh Makan, Founding Partner at ICONIQ:
“FTX is forging the way to create a modern financial system. We admire Sam and the FTX team’s laser focus on product and user experience which we believe has been core to FTX’s success as a leading global crypto exchange. We are thrilled to partner with them as they leverage their underlying infrastructure to expand into broader financial services and become the exchange of everything.”
Tom Loverro, General Partner at IVP:
“FTX has that rare combination of a visionary founder, impeccable execution and an exploding market. They also take regulatory compliance and engagement seriously. Our thesis has been and continues to be that only the trusted, regulated exchanges will win in the long run. Ambition, creativity, velocity and rigor make FTX truly unique. We’re excited to partner with Sam and the entire FTX team.”
Amy Wu, General Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners:
“Lightspeed is excited to double down in FTX’s B-1 round. Sam Bankman-Fried and the team are innovators in product with a thoughtful approach to working closely with regulators across 150+ jurisdictions. We believe FTX will continue to be a leader in powering crypto transactions across financial services and consumer businesses.”
FTX is a cryptocurrency exchange built by traders, for traders. It offers innovative products, including industry-leading derivatives, options and volatility products, tokenized stocks, prediction markets, leveraged tokens and an OTC desk. FTX strives to be an intuitive yet powerful platform for all kinds of users, and to be the most innovative exchange in the industry.
FTX is not available to US residents or residents of other prohibited jurisdictions, as set out in its Terms of Service.