The latest crypto company to net a massive investment from venture capital giants is the Hong Kong-based crypto trading startup Amber Group.
The Series B funding round was led by China Renaissance, with participation from a number of high-profile finance venture funds. These included Tiger Brokers, Tiger Global Management, Arena Holdings, Tru Arrow Partners, Sky9 Capital, DCM Ventures, and Gobi Partners.
Coinbase Ventures was one of the early investors in a Series A round in 2019 that raised $28 million for the crypto startup. With the latest round, Amber Group now has a pre-money valuation of $1 billion according to Tech Crunch.
Co-founder and CEO Michael Wu said that the investment will be used to “expand global operations to meet client demand and develop market solutions for the world’s leading crypto investors and companies.”
Institutional and retail investors
The crypto startup serves both institutional and individual investors. Products include algorithmic trading, electronic market-making, high-frequency trading, OTC trading, borrowing and lending, and derivatives, the report added.
Its mobile trading app, which was launched in the third quarter of 2020, has so far accumulated over 100,000 registered users. The firm has annualized revenues of $500 million based on figures from January to April 2021.
According to Wu, the firm has seen record months over the past quarter across both client flow and on-exchange market-making volumes. He added that it now accounts for “2-3% of total trading volumes in major spot and derivative markets,” before declaring:
“Our cumulative trading volumes have doubled from $250 billion since the beginning of the year to over $500 billion.”
Amber Group manages around $1.5 billion in trading capital and has over 330 employees worldwide across Hong Kong, Taipei, Seoul, and Vancouver.
Crypto markets retreat again
The move comes as the crypto markets continue their downtrend over the weekend. According to CoinGecko, total market capitalization has shrunk by 14% or $230 billion since June 18, accelerating losses during the morning of June 21.
The total market cap has now fallen below $1.5 trillion again for the first time since the first big slump on May 24. Bitcoin and Ethereum are leading losses with declines of 7% and 8% on the day respectively.
Venture capitalists generally look beyond short-term market fluctuations, however, and are still keen to pour millions into crypto and DeFi related projects and firms.
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