The cryptocurrency trading platform FTX raised $400 million from investors like SoftBank, with a valuation of 32,000 million dollars, becoming one of the most valuable start-up companies in a fast-growing sector such as that of digital currencies.
The funding round also included investments from Singapore’s Temasek Holdings and the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board, among others, FTX said Monday.
Headquartered in the Bahamas, FTX owns and operates FTX.com, a cryptocurrency platform serving a broad client base, including retail and institutional investors from outside the United States.
The company has raised $1.8 billion in the last six months, fueled by venture capital bets in a sector that has drawn unprecedented interest since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. In October, the business was valued at $25 billion.
Last week, the US division of FTX said it was valued at $8 billion after raising $400 million in its first round of funding from the same group of investors.
The investment of Vision Fund 2 from SoftBank It is the last one that stars in the cryptocurrency sector. In November he invested in Sandbox, a Hong Kong-based gaming platform that allows users to build a virtual world using non-fungible tokens (NFT).
It also led a $680 million funding round for the blockchain-based fantasy football game Sorare, as well as a $155 million funding round for the Blockdaemon business. The Japanese conglomerate also invested $200 million in Mercado Bitcoin, one of the largest cryptocurrency platforms in Latin America.
FTX said it had grown rapidly since its last funding round in October. Its daily trading volume has soared 40% to $14 billion, making it the third largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world.