UPDATED 12:20 EST / DECEMBER 16 2022

BLOCKCHAIN

Crypto platform Amber Group raises $300M after FTX collapse

The cryptocurrency lending and trading firm Amber Global Ltd. said today that it has raised $300 million as part of a new funding strategy to deal with the aftermath of the collapse of the crypto exchange FTX.

The new Series C round was led by Fenbushi Capital US, according to a tweet sent by the company today, and joined by other crypto-native investors and family offices. Temamesk Holding, Sequoia China, Pantera Capital and Coinbase Ventures joined the company’s Series B+ round in February.

In an interview with Bloomberg, Amber Chief Executive Michael Wu said that the company had planned on extending its B+ round an additional $100 million at a $3 billion valuation prior to the dramatic implosion of FTX – which shook up the entire crypto sector. Since that time its valuation fell below $3 billion, but the company did not reveal how low. As a result, Wu said Amber refocused its efforts toward a Series C round.

The company said that although it had less than 10% of its assets on FTX before the exchange went bankrupt, it did have to “rebalance some of its positions” but “none of this impacted our daily operations or our business continuity.”

However, the company did mention that a few of its products have experienced significant losses of volume as part of the “aftermath of the FTX default” and the company would have to find a way to protect the affected clients.

In the wake of FTX’s bankruptcy, the company reportedly did some belt-tightening according to a Bloomberg report by cutting about 40% of its workforce, shrinking its headcount down to about 300 people, which is the size the company was during early 2021.

The reduction in Amber’s workforce follows along with numerous other crypto companies across the industry that have been laying off workers amidst falling markets. Crypto exchange Kraken most recently laid off 30% of its workforce, or about 1,100 staff, following other industry players such as Coinbase Inc., Crypto.com, Bitmex and Dapper Labs earlier in the year.

“Moving forward, we will be scaling down our mass consumer efforts and non-essential business lines, in an effort to focus on our core businesses and clients,” the company said. “[We] we will be laser-focused on providing best-in-class services to our client base of institutional and high-net-worth investors.”

As a result, Amber abandoned its plans to expand into Europe and the United States and has put a stop to some of its metaverse-related projects. However, it has still moved forward with its plans to acquire Singaporean crypto platform Sparrow Holdings.

Image: Pixabay

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