Crypto Exchange FTX Valuation Jumps to $32B

investopedia.com:

Cryptocurrency exchange FTX has raised $400 million in a Series C fundraise, helping bump up the company's valuation to $32 billion. It was valued at $25 billion when it raised upwards of $420 million from investors in October 2021.  

Several notable venture and institutional firms participated in the funding round including Temasek, Softbank Vision Fund 2, Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, and Tiger Global. FTX's U.S. arm raised $400 million at a valuation of $8 billion last week from many of the same investors.

FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried told Bloomberg that the company plans to spend on mergers and acquisitions (M&A). «There are a number of businesses that we think might be synergistic with ours,» he said. FTX has already spent about $1 billion on acquisitions and, according to Bankman-Fried, may be interested in payments businesses, non-fungible token (NFT) firms, and the metaverse.He said that potential targets might be interested in getting acquired due to the challenging environment for funding. FTX already has a $2 billion war chest for venture funding.

FTX's fundraise has occurred during a fraught time in crypto markets. After setting new records during the pandemic, cryptocurrency prices have crashed since the beginning of this year. The drawdown in cryptocurrency markets has raised fears of a prolonged crypto winter, similar to the one that engulfed cryptocurrency markets in 2018 and 2019.

But Bankman-Fried doesn't expect an extended price decline in cryptocurrency prices. «I think we're not entering a long-term crypto winter,» he told CNBC, adding that news regarding interest rate changes has been moving markets «more generally as well.»

Even in the fast-moving world of cryptocurrencies, where coins and exchanges