Upstart Crypto Exchange FTX Surges Toward Top of Trading Ranks

(Bloomberg) -- FTX, the digital-assets trading platform launched two years ago by Sam Bankman-Fried, said it handled enough volume last month to make it one of the largest crypto exchanges.

FTX posted more than $400 billion in trading volume in April, the firm said in a statement Monday. That amounts to about $14 billion per day and marks a 25-fold increase from the same period last year.

“Several years ago, we took a look at the state of the world’s crypto exchanges and identified a gap in the marketplace for a reliable and secure platform robust enough to meet the needs of institutional traders and other power users,” Bankman-Fried, the firm’s co-founder and chief executive officer, said in the statement. “Two years later, FTX has established itself as a leading crypto exchange offering innovative and industry-leading products.”

Bankman-Fried, 29, dove into crypto after finishing a three-year stint at the quantitative-trading firm Jane Street Capital and started Alameda Research, a trading company, in late 2017. FTX currently has around a million registered users, according to the release, though it is not available to U.S. residents.

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