The 10-year-old cryptocurrency exchange, with a reported user base of tens of millions, announced a strategic $400 million investment from Citadel Securities.

The statement from the company stated that its valuation after the funding round was $20 billion.

The company’s co-founder and CEO, Kris Marszalek, expressed his gratitude for working with Citadel Securities, hoping to continue to work with the entity on future projects to drive the crypto industry into a new era of institutional adoption.

“The size of the opportunity in front of us is staggering, as crypto increasingly becomes the rails for finance. Having built the right regulatory and tech infrastructure over the last decade, Crypto.com is now perfectly positioned to capture this new wave of growth across all asset classes,” he added.

Meanwhile, Citadel Securities’ President, Jim Esposito, noted that Crypto.com had developed a “foundation to support the continued institutionalization of the digital asset market.”

He believes the convergence of traditional financial organizations and cryptocurrency infrastructure is presenting an “exciting evolution” that has the potential to “further improve market efficiency.”

The funding is expected to enhance the crypto exchange’s expansion into all asset classes, including tokenized securities and derivatives. The company hopes to bridge the gap between cryptocurrencies and traditional markets to create a more efficient 24/7 financial ecosystem.

Crypto.com’s native token reacted with an immediate surge that drove it higher by almost 25%. It traded at around $0.056 before it rocketed to $0.07, where it was immediately halted and now sits above $0.06.

Nevertheless, CRO remains down by over 93% since its all-time high at $0.89, marked nearly five years ago.

Source: CryptoPotato