Singapore-based cryptocurrency exchange Crypto.com broke the news that Citadel Securities has decided to invest $400 million in the company, valuing it at approximately $20 billion.
The deal represents the exchange’s first institutional funding round since it was founded a decade ago.
“Staggering Opportunity”
The investment comes amid a lot of movement in the worlds of traditional finance and digital assets, with major firms expressing their views on the increasing role of blockchain technology in the future of global markets.
According to both companies, the fresh capital will be used to accelerate Crypto.com’s expansion into tokenized securities and derivatives, two areas considered the next frontier for the crypto industry.
“We are thrilled to work with Citadel Securities to continue driving the crypto industry into a new era of institutionalization,” said Kris Marszalek, co-founder and chief executive officer of the US leading global market maker that offers liquidity and trade execution.
“The size of the opportunity in front of us is staggering, as crypto increasingly becomes the rails for finance. Having built the right regulatory and tech infrastructure over the last decade, Crypto.com is now perfectly positioned to capture this new wave of growth across all asset classes.”
A Lack of Outside Investors
Ever since its launch, Crypto.com has grown into one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency platforms, serving millions of users across more than 90 countries.
Despite having such an impressive global reach, the company didn’t manage to raise a lot of outside capital, relying instead on organic growth and earlier fundraising efforts, including a $13 million seed round and a 2017 initial coin offering that generated roughly $26.7 million.
With the decision, Citadel Securities has taken yet another step into the digital asset space after having already expanded its crypto footprint in recent years by taking part in Kraken’s $200 million funding round as well as Ripple’s $500 million raise.
Recently, Crypto.com has begun diversifying its offerings, entering the prediction markets sector via a number of partnerships with High Roller Technologies and FanDuel Predicts, while launching its own prediction platform, OG.com.
At a $20 billion valuation, Crypto.com currently ranks among the most valuable companies operating in the rapidly evolving prediction and digital assets market, alongside Kalshi and Polymarket, as the race to shape the future of finance doesn’t seem to stop anytime soon.