Breaking: FTX Closes Largest Funding Round in Crypto History at $18B Valuation

FTX crypto exchange has closed the largest funding round in crypto history with a $900 million fundraise in its series B funding round. The funding round saw participation from 60 investors with lead funding coming from the likes of Sequoia Capital, Third Point, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Coinbase Ventures, Softbank, and many others.

Sam Bankman-Fried, the 29-year-old founder and CEO of the exchange commented on their record fundraise and said,

“The primary goal of the raise was to [find] strategic allies who can help FTX grow its brand,” but the capital itself will be primarily used for acquisitions, any of those are businesses where we think we have a lot of value to add, implementing the tools that we’ve built, and frankly, in some cases, us implementing what they’ve built,”

The recent funding round close also makes CEO Bankman Fried the wealthiest crypto billionaire with his overall worth growing to $16.2 billion bagging $7.2 billion from the deal because of his 58% share holding in the company.

The cryptocurrency has been on a song recently with an array of partnerships and sponsorship deals and the recent fundraise which is nearly double in value than the next one. Primarily known for its derivative trading services, the exchange has swiftly managed to become the third-largest spot market as well. The platform boasts of one million registered customers with usage by retail and institutional investors.

Binance Sells its Stake in FTX

Among the notable names missing from the list include Binance which was among the key strategic investors during the exchange’s early days. Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao told Forbes that the sale of equity was an investment cycle and they continue to be on good terms with the rapidly growing crypto platform.

“We’ve seen tremendous growth from them, we’re very happy with that but we’ve exited completely. We’re still friends but we no longer have any equity relationship.”

FTX started comparatively late with its enter ace in 2019. However, the crypto platform has grown to become a Binance rival.