Leading cryptocurrency exchange KuCoin has closed its pre-Series B funding round, securing about $150 million to expand its offerings to include Web3 and non-fungible token (NFT) services. The latest investment raises the company’s market valuation to $10 billion, per the announcement on Tuesday.
The investment round was led by Jump Crypto, the cryptocurrency division of the popular trading company Jump Trading Group. Circle Ventures, IDG Capital, and Matrix Partners also participated in the round.
KuCoin provides a comprehensive platform of crypto services to a global audience, which is one of the many reasons we’re proud to lead this round. We are pleased to support the company as it continues to grow and expand its offerings in futures and margin trading, lending, staking, and passive yield generation to support the growth of Web 3.0 and the crypto markets.
Tak Fujishima, Head of Asia, Jump Crypto.
KuCoin set to explore Web3 and NFTs
Part of the newly-raised capital will be allocated to the company’s plan to expand its offering beyond the centralized trading services. The exchange said it is planning to improve its current trading system and ultimately expand its presence in the Web3 space with the launch of “crypto wallets, GameFi, DeFi, and NFT platforms” through its investment arms such as KuCoin Labs.
KuCoin’s plan for NFTs comes as crypto exchanges rally around the space with native marketplaces. Binance and Coinbase already have a functional trading platform for NFTs, and Kraken recently announced a waitlist for its marketplace, which will support Ethereum and Solana assets upon launch. It’s likely that KuCoin could follow the trend.
Meanwhile, the fifth-largest cryptocurrency exchange also has plans for its community’s public blockchain dubbed KCC. The blockchain will be “a significant infrastructure where resources will be deployed to create a decentralized ecosystem.”
