Billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX is giving £87 million in debt financing to Liquid, a Japanese cryptocurrency exchange that was recently hacked.
Besides the debt financing deal, the firms have begun preliminary talks about possible future ventures. The collaboration plans to incorporate Liquid’s regulatory framework with FTX’s financial strength towards achieving exponential growth and success.
Partnership with FTX offers “enormous opportunities to drive innovation,” according to Liquid Group COO Seth Melamed. He also expressed his gratitude for FTX’s assistance, which he believes would help to expedite “Liquid’s roadmap of initiatives.” Melamed also underlined the need of integrating “FTX’s expertise in trading platforms with Liquid’s experience working within the regulatory frameworks in Singapore and Japan.”
Liquid’s capital status will be reinforced as a result of the fresh funds, which will back the company’s commitment to client service. This will also help speed up new capital generating initiatives, supply crucial liquidity, and enhance important regulatory indicators. This would bolster continuing licencing possibilities in Japan and Singapore, two significant nations.
When Japan’s Payment Services Act went into force in 2014, Liquid was one of the first exchanges to be awarded a crypto asset exchange operator licence. Being a licenced exchange in Japan, the firm said that it follows the Financial Services Agency’s safety criteria.
Quoine Pte. Ltd., Liquid’s Singapore arm, has also applied for a licence with the Singapore Monetary Authority. It is currently exempt from having a Singapore’s Payment Services Act licence.
The timing of Liquid’s infusion is most likely related to the Japanese exchange’s recent difficulties. Liquid disclosed a security incident earlier this week where hackers stole £58 million in cryptoassets from its warm wallets. The exchange put all assets in cold storage and halted deposit and withdrawal services for the time being. “Currently tracing the movement of the assets and working with other exchanges to freeze and recover funds,” it stated.