FTX attracts blue-chip investors in funding round, valuing crypto group at $25 billion

FTX raises $421 million in funding

The deal values ​​the Bahamas-based cryptocurrency exchange at $25 billion.

A total of 69 investors participated in the fundraising, including funds managed by BlackRock, Temasek, Tiger Global, Ribbit Capital and Lightspeed Venture Partners, FTX said.

“We are focused on establishing FTX as a trustworthy and innovative exchange by regularly engaging with regulators around the world,” said FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried.

He said that new funds would allow the exchange to expand into new jurisdictions and that its recent growth had allowed it to "work with investors who prioritize FTX's positioning as the most transparent and compliant cryptocurrency exchange in the world."

Bankman-Fried, a 29-year-old California native who founded FTX in 2019, is now one of the richest people in cryptocurrency markets with an estimated fortune of $8.7 billion.

He had previously said that he would be open to large acquisitions in the traditional financial world once his exchange becomes large enough. He said earlier this year that FTX was on track to make $1 billion in profits this year.

Bitcoin hit a new record high on Wednesday following the launch of the first cryptocurrency-linked exchange-traded fund. On Thursday, the digital coin was trading at $65,770, marking a 124 percent recovery from a sharp decline earlier this year.

Pension funds buy cryptocurrencies not through the coins themselves, but through investments in infrastructure companies like FTX. Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, Canada's second-largest pension fund, joined cryptocurrency lending platform Celsius Network in a $400 million funding round last week, citing a "conviction" about the underlying technology.

Coinbase, a rival cryptocurrency exchange, reached a valuation of $76 billion when it listed on Wall Street's stock market earlier this year.

FTX reached a valuation of $18 billion in July with $1 billion raised. Other backers included Japan's SoftBank, Daniel Loeb's Third Point, the family of hedge fund manager Paul Tudor Jones and Millennium Management boss Izzy Englander.