Surpassing Coinbase to catch up with Binance, what important milestones did FTX achieve in the past year?

22-08-25 13:45

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Original source: FTX

FTX released the third anniversary video last week, many people from different fields, including Taiwanese and American entertainers, sports superstars, politicians, and KOLs in the currency circle all presented bless. What milestones has FTX achieved in the past year?

If you vote for the brightest crypto startup in 2021 or 2022, FTX must be the MVP of many people. Since relocating its headquarters to the Bahamas, FTX is expanding its global scale in a "compliant manner". While acquiring other companies, it is also cooperating with brands in the sports field and well-known athletes to build a brand reputation.

FTX recently released the 3rd Anniversary Video, the video There are many celebrities in China, and many celebrities have offered their blessings to FTX.

For example, well-known artists such as Huang Zijiao, Chen Lingjiu, Li Yuxi, Wang Sijia, official figures Qin Huizhu and Huang Jingping.

There are also athletes from different fields around the world, including NFL draft pick Trevor Lawrence, MLB Hall of Famer David Ortiz, four-time women's singles champion tennis player Naomi Osaka, NBA Legendary center O'Neal.

It has only been three years since its establishment, and FTX is now the top three encrypted trading platforms in the world. According to CNBC, FTX will generate $1.02 billion in revenue in 2021, a 1,000% increase from the previous year.

How does FTX do it?

Source: Twitter @FTX Chinese

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FTX is the FTX of the world

In September 2021, FTX will move its trading platform headquarters to the Bahamas. At the end of the month, FTX announced that it had obtained a regulatory license in the Bahamas. FTX realized early on that as cryptocurrencies entered the mainstream, regulation would be a major consideration for expansion.

In addition to the already deployed FTX US, FTX currently has established compliance trading platforms in regulatory regions such as Europe, Australia, and Japan.

The expansion map of FTX is arranged in chronological order as follows:

1. FTX Europe: 2022 In March 2019, FTX obtained the regulatory license from the Cyprus Exchange Commission (CySEC), established FTX Europe through a licensed investment institution in the Eurozone, and began to provide encrypted derivatives services to European users.

2. FTX Australia: At the end of March 2022, FTX obtained a financial services license in Australia and established FTX Australia to provide encrypted derivatives services, including futures contracts, Option contracts, leveraged tokens, and contracts for difference (CFD) on encrypted assets for Australian residents.

3.FTX Japan: In June 2022, FTX was registered in Japan as a Type 1 financial instrument business under the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act, and FTX Japan was established. Provides spot transactions and perpetual contracts, and also supports fiat currency services, allowing users to quickly withdraw and deposit Japanese yen.

4. Acquisition of Bitvo in Canada: In June 2022, FTX will acquire Bitvo (Bitvo, Inc.), a Canadian crypto asset trading platform. The trading platform is regulated under the Securities and Exchange Act and is registered with FINTRAC as a currency provider. The acquisition also allows FTX to offer compliant products to Canadian users.

5. FTX Exchange FZE: FZE is actually a subsidiary of FTX Europe, which was licensed by the Dubai Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) at the end of July 2022. Provide spot and derivatives trading platform services for qualified institutional investors in the United Arab Emirates.

Including FTX US, FTX is currently able to provide encrypted spot and derivatives in compliance with regulations in the United States, the Eurozone, Australia, Japan, Canada, and the United Arab Emirates commodity transactions.

Not only that, FTX founder SBF also hinted at entering Latin America in an interview with Bloomberg in July, and is currently evaluating the regulatory situation in Brazil and Mexico.

On the other hand, Vident, the largest shareholder of the South Korean encryption trading platform Bithumb, revealed that it is in contact with FTX to discuss the sale of shares. Vident said that it may be that FTX acquired Bithumb or that FTX purchased a large amount of equity and obtained part of the management rights.

Maybe in the near future we will see FTX expand into Latin America and Korea.

Source: Twitter@ FTX Chinese

Online stock trading in the United States, will the next step be encrypted derivatives?

Among all regulatory regions, U.S. regulation is definitely a global indicator. In addition to being complex and rigorous, it is also a global leading indicator. Due to regional factors, almost all exchanges except Coinbase have encountered many problems in expanding to the United States. However, FTX has made a major breakthrough this year, even surpassing Coinbase in terms of spot trading market share and product diversity.

FTX US is a compliance trading platform launched by FTX in the United States. At the beginning, it only provided "spot trading", but with the acquisition of LedgerX and After Embed, FTX US has begun to provide "US stock trading" to US users, and is even discussing with the CFTC (US Futures Trading Commission) to launch encrypted derivatives.

The LedgerX and Embed acquisitions are critical.

LedgerX was originally a compliant "derivatives trading platform" in the United States, with three CFTC regulatory licenses: DCM (designated contract market), SEC (swap execution ), DCO (Derivatives Clearing Organization). Embed Financial is a compliant securities broker, responsible for securities custody, trade execution, clearing, and it is also a member of FINRA, the financial regulatory authority.

With two acquisitions, FTX US will officially launch FTX Stocks at the end of July 2022, and begin to provide US users with trading services for thousands of US-listed securities, including General stocks and ETFs.

On the other hand, FTX is also proposing with CFTC to use "full margin" to replace traditional futures commission merchants (FCM). The system will use 30 seconds as a time unit to calculate the margin positions on a rolling basis. If the margin ratio drops too low, FTX will begin liquidating user positions within seconds. The worst plan is to sell the position to the liquidity provider for the "agreed amount".

The proposal is still under discussion, and SBF was invited to a CFTC roundtable. If the proposal is successfully passed, FTX US may launch encrypted derivatives trading in the foreseeable future.

After entering the bear market, FTX has also continued to gain

In TerraUSD, Celsuis, Three Arrows Capital After the thunderstorm, the encryption market ushered in a big liquidation. FTX has assisted some crypto startups. In addition to preventing the crisis from spreading, SBF has also won the reputation of "the borrower of last resort in the crypto market".

FTX provided Voyager Digital with $480 million and BlockFi with a $640 million revolving line of credit.

FTX US provided BlockFi with a total of 640 million US dollars in loans, of which 240 million can be converted into BlockFi equity, that is to say, FTX can expand its business to the field of encrypted lending in the future .

On the other hand, FTX also continues to sign brand spokespersons in various fields, including NBA star Stephen Curry, legendary quarterback Tom Brady, Brazilian supermodel Gisele (Gisele Bndchen), MLB Hall of Famer David Ortiz and more.

According to previous SBF statements, these collaborations are to build FTX's brand equity. He believes that sports are one of the few fields without borders. Cooperating with these athletes or teams can help the public quickly understand FTX and know the core purpose of FTX.