FTX looking to raise $1B in funding at $32B valuation News ▸ US ▸ FTX ▸ Investments
FTX looking to raise $1B in funding at $32B valuation
Temasek, SoftBank, and Tiger Global are among existing investors who have agreed to fund FTX in the upcoming round.
2 min read
Updated: Sep. 22, 2022 at 3:12 pm UTC
Cover art/illustration via CryptoSlate. Image includes combined content which may include AI-generated content.
Sam Bankman-Fried‘s (SBF) exchange FTX is reportedly in talks with investors to raise funding up to $1 Billion at a valuation of $32 billion.
Singaporean investment companies Temasek, SoftBank, and Tiger Global are among existing investors who agreed to fund FTX in the upcoming round.
The exchange giant also held a funding round in January and raised $400 million to reach $32 billion in valuation. Meanwhile, its U.S.-based derivative unit, FTX US, raised another $400 million for itself in the same round and increased its valuation to $8 billion.
Investments so far
SBF has been focusing on investments and acquisitions from all angles. On May 2022, FTX purchased 7.6% of Robinhood for $648.3 million. Even though it’s a small investment compared to the scale of FTX, it still saved Robinhood’s struggling stocks and led to an increase of 36%.
One month later, SBF lent a hand to BlockFi. CryptoSlate reported the news when SBF was in talks with the troubled exchange and two other potential investors. As a result of the negotiations, SBF loaned $400 million in credit to the exchange. Afterward, BlockFi offered the option to purchase the entire company for up to $240 million depending on its performance.
In July, it was revealed that South Korean exchange Bithumb and FTX had been negotiating an acquisitions agreement for two months. Even though the negotiations are not concluded yet, purchasing Bithumb would serve two main goals of SBF: expanding over Asia and preventing further contagion in the market.
In the meantime, SBF-owned Alameda Ventures have been continuing its investments separately. In June, Alameda loaned 15,000 Bitcoin (BTC) and $200 million in cash and USDC to Voyager Digital in an attempt to save the due to its exposure to Three Arrows Capital. However, the attempts weren’t enough, as both entities went bankrupt in the following weeks.
Ivoyagernvestments before the winter market
In reality, mergers and acquisitions have been a top priority for FTX even before the winter market started. In the early days of the bear market, FTX US president Brett Harrison said that the company was looking to purchase local businesses to expand abroad.
He said:
“We’re doing that globally, in places like in Japan, Australia, in Dubai, different places where we’ve been able to either partner with local companies or sometimes do acquisitions to be able to get licenses that we need,”
Following their plan, FTX inked an agreement to acquire the Japanese crypto exchange Liquid on February 2022. The amount spent by FTX was not disclosed; however, Liquid was an essential step for FTX’s expansion over Asia.
Mentioned in this article
Bitcoin 
USD Coin 
FTX 
FTX US Derivatives 
BlockFi 
Alameda Research 
Voyager 
Three Arrows Capital 
Robinhood 
Sam Bankman-Fried Author 
Zeynep Geylan
Zeynep is an academic who turned to crypto in 2018. Originating in social sciences, she is especially interested in the social impact of blockchain and cryptocurrencies and strongly believes in their transmuting power.
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In this article
Bitcoin
$96,730.36
Bitcoin, a decentralized currency that defies the sway of central banks or administrators, transacts electronically, circumventing intermediaries via a peer-to-peer network.
USD Coin
$0.99977
USD Coin (USDC) is a stablecoin fully backed by the US dollar and developed by the CENTRE consortium.
FTX
FTX is a defunct cryptocurrency exchange, currently in bankruptcy proceedings, that was founded by Sam Bankman-Fried and Zixiao “Gary” Wang in May 2019.
FTX US Derivatives
FTX US Derivatives is a digital currency futures and options exchange and clearinghouse regulated by the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
BlockFi
BlockFi is a defunct cryptocurrency lender company which is currently in bankruptcy proceedings.
Alameda Research
Alameda Research was once a principal trading firm, operating as an arm of the failed crypto exchange, FTX.
Voyager
Voyager Digital is a bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange company in the United States that was founded in 2018.
Three Arrows Capital
Three Arrows Capital (3AC), a Singapore-based crypto hedge fund, collapsed due to poor risk management, recklessness in dealing with business partners and a significant portion of greed.
Robinhood is an investing platform where you can invest in stocks, ETFs, options, and cryptocurrencies side by side, all commission-free and easily accessible in one app..
Sam Bankman-Fried is the former CEO, and co-founder of defunct crypto exchange FTX and Alameda Research.