KuCoin, a leading cryptocurrency exchange, has raised $150 million in a pre-Series B funding round led by Jump Crypto, the investment arm of US proprietary trading firm, Jump Trading, to further its Web3 presence and offerings.
This funding round also saw the participation of other investment funds, including Circle Ventures, IDG Capital, and Matrix Partners. This is the exchange’s second funding round since its $20 million series A round. With this current new funding, KuCoin reaches a valuation of $10 billion.
“KuCoin provides a comprehensive platform of crypto services to a global audience, which is one of the many reasons we’re proud to lead this round. We are pleased to support the company as it continues to grow and expand its offerings in futures and margin trading, lending, staking, and passive yield generation to support the growth of Web 3.0 and the crypto markets,” said Tak Fujishima, Head of Asia, Jump Crypto.
The 4-year-old exchange with its operational headquarter in Seychelles has been on a steady rise since its inception, going from being the 49th largest exchange in 2018 to now being the 5th largest exchange based on trade volume, according to CoinMarketCap. It has also amassed 18 million users in over 200 countries and regions.
Growing from being just an exchange platform, KuCoin has also expanded into 2 financial investment arms called KuCoin Labs and KuCoin Ventures.
According to the exchange, this new funding will be used to expand its services beyond centralized trading and grow its presence in Web3 and its decentralized ecosystem. With this funding, it will broaden its portfolio with crypto wallets, GameFi, DeFi, NFT platforms, and DAOs through its investment arms.
With growing interest in Web3, metaverses, and blockchain technology, KuCoin is further staking its claim in the future of the decentralized web with this latest funding and intended projects. This comes months after the exchange, through its NFT marketplace, Windvane, launched a $100 million “Creators Fund” to support and incubate early-stage NFT projects.
KuCoin prides itself on being the “people’s exchange”, offering over 700 cryptocurrencies on its exchange, listing tokens with small to mid-sized market cap and with low trading fees. With this current push into Web3, it’ll live up to this reputation by banking on Web3’s decentralization and openness to further its goal to make crypto and DeFi services available to anyone, anywhere.
According to KuCoin’s CEO, Johnny Lyu, “The vote of confidence from prominent investors, including Jump Crypto and Circle Ventures, solidifies our vision that one day, everyone will be with crypto. KuCoin is built for all classes of investors, and we believe these new investors and partners will contribute to making KuCoin synonymous with a reliable and trustworthy gateway into the crypto space.”
KCC, the public chain jointly built by members of the KuCoin community and KCS fans, will be a useful infrastructure to deploy resources towards these new Web3 projects and create a decentralized ecosystem.
KuCoin also plans to leverage this pre-series B funding to improve its global regulation efforts, build its core trading system for better performance, and enhance its security and risk management systems to make the platform more secure and accessible for users. It expects to launch decentralized wallet products later in the second quarter of 2022.
About KuCoin
Launched in September 2017, KuCoin is a global cryptocurrency exchange with its operational headquarters in Seychelles. As a user-oriented platform with a focus on inclusiveness and community action reach, it offers over 700 digital assets, and currently provides spot trading, margin trading, P2P fiat trading, futures trading, staking, and lending to its 18 million users in 207 countries and regions.
In 2022, KuCoin raised over $150 million in investments through a pre-Series B round, bringing total investments to $170 million with Round A combined, at a total valuation of $10 billion. KuCoin is currently one of the top 5 crypto exchanges according to CoinMarketCap. Forbes also named KuCoin one of the Best Crypto Exchanges in 2021. In 2022, The Ascent named KuCoin the Best Crypto App for enthusiasts.
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