Binance.US, the US subsidiary of major crypto exchange Binance, closed its first funding round last Wednesday after raising more than $200 million, with a pre-money valuation of $4.5 billion.
According to Binance.US, RRE Ventures, Foundation Capital, Original Capital, VanEck, and Circle Ventures all participated in the funding round. Binance has said the funds will be used to invest in its spot trading platform and new product development.
The exchange, which launched in 2019, is currently available in 45 US states and eight territories and plans to expand services to all US states and territories in the future. Binance currently offers crypto spot trading to both retail and institutional clients.
While Binance.US has seen greater trading volumes than other top US crypto exchanges, such as FTX.US and Gemini, it still trails far behind Coinbase, which saw a trading volume of over $81 billion last month, according to The Block’s Data Dashboard. Binance.US, by comparison, had a trading volume of just over $9 billion in the same period.
Binance.US has yet to announce when it will go public. According to CoinDesk, a company spokesperson said via email that “Binance.US intends to go public in the next two to three years at a time that we deem is right for the business.”
According to the WSJ, the SEC recently launched a probe into Binance.US and is looking into the relationship between the crypto exchange and trading firms Sigma Chain AG and Merit Peak. The firms act as market makers, continuously buying and selling crypto on Binance.US. The WSJ reported that both firms are connected to Binance CEO – and majority owner – Changpeng Zhao.
Binance.US is not the only exchange to see a successful funding round in the last year. Competitors FTX.US and Gemini both raised $400 million in their first funding rounds with valuations of $8 billion and $7.1 billion, respectively.
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