FTX, the platform for exchanging cryptocurrency derivatives based in Antigua, closed this year with a fund-raise worth over $900 million. With a record valuation of around $18 billion, the fund-raise is the biggest private equity event in the industry. More than 60 crypto investors took part in the fundraiser, including Lightspeed Venture Partners, Paradigm, Third Point, Sequoia Capital, Multicoin Capital, Sino Global Capital, Softbank, Coinbase Ventures, Paradigm, and more. Hedge funders Alan Howard and Izzy Englander also participated in the fund-raise event of FTX.
Although a latecomer in the crypto industry, FTX stands tall among industry giants like Coinbase and Binance by providing beginners at trading with advanced investment products like leveraged tokens, volatility products, futures, and options. The platform of FTX would witness a daily transaction volume of more than $10 billion, and this revenue multiplied exponentially by the time of the platform’s closure. As of today, FTX is associated with more than a million registered users that include retail investors, day traders, institutional traders, and family offices.
The burgeoning popularity of the platform of FTX is due to the high-profile sports sponsorship deals that the platform struck this year. FTX entered into a 19-year naming rights contract with the NBA team of Miami Heat worth $135 million. The platform also secured multi-year brand collaborations with Major League Baseball (MLB) and esports organization TSM. Investors are wondering whether FTX will now make a public debut to empower cryptocurrency startups. Despite the popularity, it is to be noted that Binance has not made any investment in FTX. In December 2019, Binance made a strategic investment that brought the platform under the scrutiny of financial authorities. Following the incident, Binance made a clean exit from the platform by surrendering its equity stakes with FTX.
