Crypto trading firm Amber valued at $3B after big Singaporean investment

Crypto finance service provider Amber has landed a valuation of $3 billion following a funding round led by Singaporean state-owned investment firm Temasek Holdings. 

Amber Group was able to raise $200 million in its Series B+ funding round as revealed in a Feb. 21 announcement. Other participants included Sequoia China, Pantera Capital, Tiger Global Management, Tru Arrow Partners, and Coinbase Ventures.

We are excited to announce our Series B+, which comes at a time of rapidly increasing crypto adoption globally. The investment reinforces Amber Group’s strategic alignment with its investors, as well as a shared vision of digital assets’ future in a new, digital economy. #wagmi pic.twitter.com/6EOHd1H8Gx

— Amber Group (@ambergroup_io) February 22, 2022

Amber has now increased its valuation by three times since last June when its Series B round of funding saw it valued at $1 billion. The company, which was founded in Hong Kong by former Morgan Stanley traders, currently has $5 billion in assets under management.

The company stated that it plans on using the new investment to make “key hires to support our institutional business in Europe and the Americas,” and expand the global reach of its consumer-side WhaleFin mobile-based crypto investing platform.

In the same announcement, Steven Ji, Partner at Sequoia China said,

"Digital assets are becoming an increasingly important category to watch, especially for institutional investors.”

Amber Group helps institutional and commercial investors invest in cryptocurrency. To date, it has over $1 trillion in cumulative trading volume.

Amber Group’s growth is evidenced both by the increasing amount of funding it has received and the total number of its holdings. On Feb. 1, Japan-based crypto trading platform DeCurret sold its crypto operations to Amber Group after signaling plans to do so on Jan. 12.

Singapore has been one of the friendliest markets to crypto investors in the region. According to a recent KPMG report, the city-state saw $1.48 billion in crypto-related investments in 2021. That is up 10 times from 2020. However, of the 180 companies that have applied for permits to operate a crypto business there, only five have been approved since January, according to Bloomberg.

Related: Why Singapore is one of the most crypto-friendly countries

Perhaps in some small part due to the heightened crypto investing activity, regulators have begun cracking down on the marketing tactics some crypto companies employ. New guidelines to advertisers issued on Jan. 17 prohibit ads from being placed in public areas such as public transportation, websites, and print media.