Crypto exchange colossus Binance has invested an undisclosed amount of money in derivatives platform FTX as part of a strategic partnership between the two firms.
As part of the deal announced Thursday, Binance has purchased equity in the derivatives firm and purchased long positions in the FTX Token, FTT, the platform’s native coin.
“The investment will help accelerate the growth of FTX with support and strategic advisory from Binance while FTX maintains its independent operations,” FTX founder and CEO Sam Bankman-Fried said.
In return, FTX will help develop Binance’s products, particularly its flagship exchange, Binance.com, and over-the-counter (OTC) trading desk. FTX also announced its intention to build out a suite of products complementary to tokenized ecosystems, a project Malta-based Binance will assist.
Founded in the spring of 2019, FTX was an incubation project for Alameda Research, a digital asset research firm. FTX offers OTC, futures, indexes and spot trading and operates out of the Caribbean islands of Antigua and Barbuda. The exchange processes nearly a half-billion dollars of trade volume per day, according to a release from Binance.
“The FTX team has built an innovative crypto trading platform with stunning growth,” Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao said in a statement. “We see quite a bit of ourselves in the FTX team and believe in their potential in becoming a major player in the crypto derivatives markets.”
The investment follows Binance’s September acquisition of JEX, a Seychelles-based spot and derivatives platform. The acquisition helped the exchange add options and futures to its trading platform.
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