FTX, a cryptocurrency exchange, has announced a fresh round of investment totaling $420 million, valuing the firm at $25 billion.
The Bahamas-based company announced Thursday that it had secured the additional funds from 69 investors, including the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board, Singapore’s Temasek, BlackRock, and Sequoia.
The firm specifically said that it received a total of $420,690,000 in its most recent round, with the “420” and “69′′ being a reference to meme culture.
The investment is a follow-up to FTX’s series B funding transaction, which garnered $900 million at a $18 billion value in July.
FTX is one of the major digital currency exchanges in the world, competing with Coinbase, Binance, and Kraken. It specializes in derivatives and leveraged trading, which is the use of borrowed cash to amplify bets.
“We created FTX two years ago with the goal of establishing a better financial marketplace,” FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried explained.
“Today, we are focused on establishing FTX as a trustworthy and creative exchange by interacting with authorities across the world on a regular basis and continually finding chances to improve our services for digital asset investors.”
The fresh round comes only one day after bitcoin reached a record high of more over $66,000. Investors are ecstatic about the debut of the first U.S. exchange-traded fund tracking bitcoin futures, a watershed moment that brings crypto closer to Wall Street.
Bankman-Fried is kind of a crypto celebrity. He also co-founded Alameda Research, a quantitative trading business, and has invested in several start-ups. Bankman-Fried is the richest individual in cryptocurrency, according to Forbes, with a net worth of $22.5 billion.
