BENGALURU (REUTERS) - Crypto firm FTX Trading has raised fresh capital at a valuation of US$25 billion (S$33.7 billion) from a clutch of big-name venture capital investors, making it one of the most richly valued crypto start-ups in the world.
The financing, led by investors including Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board, Singapore investment company Temasek and Tiger Global, is a continuation of an earlier Series B funding round from July, when the two-year-old start-up raised US$1 billion from SoftBank, Temasek and other investors at a valuation of US$18 billion.
The latest US$420 million (S$566 million) funding round, which attracted 69 investors, comes at a time when cryptocurrencies are facing tighter regulatory scrutiny in the United States and around the world.
Founded by crypto entrepreneurs Sam Bankman-Fried and Gary Wang and headquartered in the Bahamas, FTX is the owner and operator of the FTX.com cryptocurrency exchange, which caters to a wide customer base that includes retail investors, family offices and institutional investors.
The platform is currently not available to residents in the US.
FTX also counts celebrity couple Tom Brady and Gisele Bundchen among its backers.
In a statement on Thursday (Oct 21), FTX said its user base has grown 48 per cent since its July fund-raising and its average trade volume has surged 75 per cent, averaging about US$14 billion a day in daily volumes.
