With additional backing from organizations like Circle Ventures, the global cryptocurrency exchange KuCoin hopes to go further than centralized trading services and concentrate on Web3.
On May 10, the KuCoin cryptocurrency exchange revealed a $150 million pre-Series B investment round, valuing the firm at $10 billion.
KuCoin CEO Johnny Lyu told Cointelegraph that the current fundraising round primarily intends to expand the exchange’s collaboration with important industry players and encourage the general acceptance of crypto.
“KuCoin is financially healthy. […] We are still in contact with many VCs, and we are open to have another round in the near future, as long as we can find partners that share the same value and vision with us.”
Jump Crypto, the cryptocurrency branch of renowned quantitative trading company Jump Trading Group, leads the latest KuCoin fundraising. The USD Coin (USDC) stablecoin’s cryptocurrency investment subsidiary, Circle Ventures, is one of the new investors in the round.
IDG Capital, a significant investment business, and Matrix Partners, a private equity investment firm, were among the investors in KuCoin’s $20 million Series A fundraising round in November 2018.
KuCoin intends to establish and invest in cryptocurrency wallets, services connected to decentralized finance (DeFi), GameFi, and nonfungible token (NFT) platforms to concentrate on decentralized trading services and presence in Web3. Furthermore, the company intends to invest in its subsidiaries KuCoin Labs and KuCoin Ventures and the KCC public community chain.
“Decentralization is an unstoppable trend, but we believe centralization and decentralization will co-exist in the future. KuCoin hopes to better cater to the needs of all classes of investors,” according to Lyu. He also said that the company hopes to deploy decentralized wallet products later in Q2 2022 and its NFT marketplace Windwave.
