FTX Continues With Aggressive Expansion While Other Crypto Exchanges Prefer to Slow Down

Sam Bankman-Fried’s cryptocurrency exchange FTX continues with aggressive expansion even in times of crypto market uncertainty. In its pursuit of expanding its global footprint, FTX announced the launch of its operations in Japan on Thursday, June 2.

The FTX Japan will function as a regulated exchange and shall be a licensed Japanese crypto-asset exchange services provider. This will allow FTX to provide leading crypto products and services to the Japanese crypto community, including spot trading and perpetual swaps.

FTX’s expansion in Japan came through the acquisition of Liquid Group Inc. earlier this year. FTX chief Sam Bankman-Fried said that this acquisition is a key step towards achieving their goal of offering a global investor base. Importantly, it allows users to seek exposure to crypto markets through a regulated entity. Speaking on the matter, FTX chief said:

“The acquisition not only gives us a technological advantage, but also allows us to work directly with Japanese regulators in a transparent, constructive and positive manner.

“Japan is a highly regulated market with a potential market size of almost $1 trillion when it comes to cryptocurrency trading. With the launch of FTX Japan, we will be able to bring additional products to this market, such as our perpetuals and spot crypto trading”.

Recently, the FTX chief said that they are ready to spend billions of dollars on key acquisitions this year. Interestingly, the decision to expand comes when other crypto exchanges like Gemini and Coinbase are pausing the hiring.

Owing to tough market conditions, Gemini has decided to cut down staff by 10% and rescind a number of accepted offers.

FTX Topples Coinbase for Second Spot

For the last month of May 22, crypto exchange FTX has emerged as the second-biggest crypto exchange by market share unseating Coinbase. FTX’s market share jumped to 10.98% last month while Coinbase’s market share stood at 9.6%. Binance remains undisputed with a 65% market share.

FTX has been growing its presence in the U.S. market at a very fast rate. Apart from crypto, the company is also delving into other verticles such as stock trading.