FTX crypto exchange raises $420M from 69 investors

FTX, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world, has raised $420 million in fresh funding, bringing its total valuation to $25 billion.

The firm officially announced Thursday that FTX’s operator, FTX Trading, has completed a new Series B-1 fundraise involving 69 investors, including Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board and Singapore’s state investment firm Temasek.

Other investors included major venture capital firms such as Sequoia Capital, Tiger Global, Sea Capital, Ribbit Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and funds and accounts managed by BlackRock.

According to FTX head of product Ramnik Arora, the new funding will help the company further expand its market opportunities across equities, prediction markets, nonfungible tokens (NFT) and videogame partnerships. “We expect to make strategic investments designed to grow the business and expand our regulatory coverage,” he said.

FTX founder and CEO Sam Bankman-Fried said that he founded his company with the idea of “creating a better financial marketplace.” “For this round, we capitalized on those strides and were able to partner with investors that prioritize positioning FTX as the world’s most transparent and compliant cryptocurrency exchange,” he added.

The news comes shortly after FTX obtained registration for its Bahamian subsidiary in the Bahamas in September. The exchange has been actively involved in the NFT industry recently, announcing the launch of its own native NFT marketplace last month.

This story is developing and will be updated.