Cryptocurrency exchange FTX will acquire Japan’s Liquid Group, its operating subsidiaries and one of the licensed crypto exchanges in Japan. Liquid Group announced Wednesday that FTX was purchasing Quoine Corporation, Quoine Pte. in Singapore. Quoine, one of Japan’s first crypto exchanges to be registered by the financial regulator in 2017, operates under the Liquid brand.
Although the terms of this deal are not known, Liquid was valued at over $1 billion in its initial investment round in 2019. The deal is expected to close next month subject to the usual closing conditions.
FTX already knows Liquid. Last August, Liquid was the victim of a hack that cost it nearly $100 million. FTX provided $120million in debt financing.
Quoine will integrate FTX products and services into Quoine’s own platform once the acquisition is complete. FTX customers in Japan will also be migrated to Quoine’s platform. FTX and Liquid plan to collaborate to serve institutional and retail customers in Japan as well as globally.
This news comes a day following FTX’s announcement that it had raised $400 million in a Series C round of funding. It is now valued at $32 billion. FTX USA, FTX’s American affiliate, raised $400 million last week in its first-ever funding round, at a valuation of $8 billion.
Recently, both FTX and FTX US have acquired several companies. In August 2020, FTX acquired crypto portfolio management app Blockfolio for $150 million. FTX US has recently acquired LedgerX, a crypto derivatives exchange.
Sam Bankman-Fried, CEO of FTX, has aspirations to one day acquire the traditional financial giants Goldman Sachs CME Group. According to him, acquiring Goldman Sachs CME Group will be possible once FTX surpasses Binance and Coinbase.
