FTX (company)

FTX is a Bahamian cryptocurrency exchange.

FTX is incorporated in Antigua and Barbuda and headquartered in The Bahamas. As of July 2021, the exchange averages $10 billion of daily trading volume and has over one million users. FTX operates FTX.US, a separate exchange available to US residents.

History
MIT graduates Sam Bankman-Fried and Gary Wang founded FTX in May 2019. Before founding FTX, Bankman-Fried traded international ETFs at Jane Street Capital, a proprietary trading firm, and he founded Alameda Research, a quantitative trading firm.

In August 2020, FTX acquired Blockfolio, a cryptocurrency portfolio tracking app, for $150 million.

In July 2021, FTX raised $900 million at a $18 billion valuation from over 60 investors, including Softbank, Sequoia Capital, Third Point Management, Paul Tudor Jones, and Alan Howard. Binance, a competitor which invested in the company in 2020, divested of its share in 2021.

In September 2021, FTX moved their headquarters from Hong Kong to The Bahamas.

On November 26, 2021, they announced that they opened to Turkey on the |FTX Twitter account. Officially, FTX TR has now started its service in Turkey.

On January 14, 2022, FTX announced a $2 billion venture fund named FTX Ventures.

In January 2022, FTX raised $400 million in Series C funding at a $32 billion valuation.

On February 11th, 2022, FTX.US announced that the company would soon begin offering stock trading to its US customers.

In February 2022 it was reported that FTX was reportedly creating a gaming division that will help video game developers offer blockchain-based technologies like cryptocurrency and NFTs into video games.

Partnerships
In April 2021, FTX acquired the naming rights to the Miami Heat’s basketball stadium in a 19-year, $135 million deal, fully renaming it FTX Arena in June 2021.

On June 4, 2021, FTX announced a 10-year, $210 million naming rights deal with TSM, an esports organization, who officially changed their name to Team SoloMid FTX. On June 23, 2021, FTX announced a partnership with Major League Baseball. As part of the deal, the FTX logo is featured on the uniforms of the umpires. On June 29, 2021, Tom Brady, an American football player in the NFL, became an ambassador for FTX. As part of the partnership, Tom Brady and his wife Gisele Bündchen both took equity stakes in FTX.

In August 2021, Kevin O'Leary signed on as official spokesperson for FTX, to be paid for in cryptocurrency which will be managed on FTX's platform. FTX also paid $17.5 million for the naming rights to California Memorial Stadium for ten years.

In September 2021, FTX announced a long-term partnership with the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team that adds the FTX logo to the cars and uniforms of both Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas. Other FTX brand ambassadors include NBA player Stephen Curry.

In October 2021, FTX ventured into Cricket by signing a global deal with International Cricket Council starting with the T20 World Cup held in UAE.