- New agreements can increase retail users despite the crypto bear market.
- As the cryptocurrency market has fallen, interest in FTX has risen recently.
- Bulls claim crypto has a long way to go before it can draw more customers.
Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of FTX Trading Ltd., stated that he is in discussion to raise new funds to make “effective purchases” during the crypto collapse.
At The Wall Street Journal’s Tech Live conference on Tuesday, Mr. Bankman-Fried stated that he views acquisitions as a way to increase the number of retail users on the cryptocurrency exchange he founded, a market segment he claimed FTX has so far been difficult to penetrate.
FTX is a regulated digital asset exchange that offers a variety of trading options, including CFD and futures. The company has seen increased interest recently as the crypto market has taken a tumble.
Mr. Bankman-Fried said:
We’re seeing a lot of interest from institutional investors, and we also have some retail users who are looking to get in on the action,
According to Mr. Bankman-Fried, he will not concentrate on the bailout-style purchases he made earlier this year when he attempted to save two crypto lenders. He claimed that despite having a far smaller user base than bitcoin exchange Coinbase (NASDAQ:COIN) Global Inc., FTX conducts a much higher trade.
He also joked about creating a cryptocurrency inspired by cats, a reference to the launch of various dog-inspired digital currencies.
The funding effort comes at a difficult time for cryptocurrency businesses, which have seen user losses this year due to a decline in the value of cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and ether.
At the same panel, Ravi Mhatre, a partner at the venture capital company Lightspeed Venture Partners, stated that he was spending less time investing in fields like decentralized finance that had lost consumer interest due to falling pricing.
The two crypto bulls agreed there is still a long way to go before the industry can attract more consumers and shed its reputation as a haven for fraud and economic speculation. The blockchain technology that underpins cryptocurrencies, according to Mr. Mhatre, is still “immature” and needs to develop to be widely adopted.
Mr. Mhatre claimed that the rate of innovation was reasonably healthy. Although they remain upbeat about the industry’s long-term potential, Mr. Mhatre and Mr. Bankman-Fried said they were unsure when the crypto decline would reach its bottom.
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