Global crypto exchange KuCoin has secured a strategic investment of $10 million (around Rs 80 crore) from quantitative trading firm Susquehanna International Group (SIG), the company said on Thursday.
The company will use the funds to upgrade platform infrastructure and enhance the product lineup. The capital will also support KuCoin’s global expansion and hiring plan.
KuCoin has 300 job openings to be filled as of July. In addition, KuCoin and SIG will jointly support crypto startups through incubation, investment, and consultation, especially the projects built on the KCC, the public chain built by KuCoin’s community members.
The announcement comes on the back of KuCoin raising a $150 million pre-Series B funding round at a $10 billion valuation. The round, led by Jump Crypto, saw participation of multiple investment funds including Circle Ventures, IDG Capital and Matrix Partners.
“KuCoin has been through a few crypto cycles. The support of SIG will solidify our leading role as a centralized exchange and facilitate our ecosystem expansion in the decentralized Web 3.0 world,” said Johnny Lyu, chief executive officer of KuCoin.
Web 3.0 or Web3 is the latest iteration of the World Wide Web which incorporates aspects like decentralization, blockchain and token-based economies.
According to CoinMarketCap, KuCoin is the fifth largest crypto exchange on the market. In November of 2018, KuCoin secured $20 million in Round A funding.
Launched in September 2017, KuCoin is a global cryptocurrency exchange for over 700 digital assets. It 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 2020, KuCoin launched a $50 million support plan to boost the development of the Indian blockchain industry. KuCoin labs launched a $100 million metaverse fund in 2021, and KuCoin Ventures and Windvane (KuCoin NFT marketplace）launched a $100 million Creators Fund to support NFT creators, artists and projects.
In July, the cryptocurrency token GARI, based on the private GARI blockchain network owned by Indian short video and social network platform Chingari, took a nosedive. The crash raised concerns about the reason, bringing back memories of when stablecoin LUNA, belonging to the now-reformed Terra blockchain, saw nearly 99% of its value wiped out in one day – despite being pegged to a fiat currency.
Several users took to Twitter to suggest that such a sell-off from private crypto exchange KuCoin is what led to the crash in GARI’s price crashing today. In response, Johnny Lyu, chief executive of KuCoin, maintained that the exchange is a “neutral platform” and “has nothing to do” with this crash.
“In the initial stage of the dumping, the price was lower at KuCoin because we are the biggest and most liquid market for GARI, most traders chose to sell here. The price difference between exchanges existed for a few minutes, but it was soon erased as people made arbitrages between exchanges, buying low at KuCoin and selling high elsewhere,” Lyu added.