Global market maker Citadel Securities has invested $400 million in cryptocurrency exchange Crypto.com, giving the platform a $20 billion valuation, according to an announcement on Thursday.
Crypto.com, which has a number of digital asset products, said the funds will help the Singapore-based company expand its services to include assets such as securities and blockchain-based derivatives.
The cash will help bridge the gap “between digital assets and traditional markets to create a more efficient 24/7 financial ecosystem,” it said Thursday. advertisement He reads.
“The scale of the opportunity before us is staggering, as cryptocurrencies increasingly become a path to finance,” Chris Marszalek, CEO of Crypto.com, said in a statement.
“Having built the right regulatory and technology infrastructure over the past decade, Crypto.com is now ideally positioned to capture this new wave of growth across all asset classes.”
“The convergence of traditional financial markets and digital asset infrastructure is an exciting development with the potential to further improve market efficiency,” added Jim Esposito, President of Citadel Securities.
Wall Street’s interest in the token
Esposito’s comment comes as Wall Street’s interest in blockchain technology increases – despite the market’s decline.
Last February, BlackRock, the world’s largest asset management company, Announce It was working with decentralized exchange Uniswap to bring one of its funds onto the chain.
And before that, in January, the New York Stock Exchange He said It was building a platform that would allow traders to buy and sell tokenized versions of US-listed stocks and exchange-traded funds.
Recently, the S&P 500 index gave cryptocurrency platform Trade (XYZ) the green light to launch a new derivative contract on decentralized exchange Hyperliquid, allowing traders to gain leveraged exposure to the top index.
Cryptocurrency interest at Citadel
Citadel, based in Miami, Florida, has been interested for some time in digital assets: In 2023, the company helped launch EDX Markets, a “first-of-its-kind exchange” that gives investors “safer, faster and more efficient crypto trading.”
exchange this year Applied For National Trust Banks to charter with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, marking a step toward deeper integration between digital asset companies and the U.S. banking system.
Citadel last year also pumped $200 million into cryptocurrency exchange Kraken to help accelerate the company’s strategy of bringing traditional financial products on-chain.
