The unicorn FTX, which has been established for two years, is showing signs of becoming a “giant” in the cryptocurrency field.
Original title: “Seriously, who will be the next Coinbase/Binance?” 》
Written by: Corey Pito Source: Deeplink Technology
A few hours later, Coinbase is about to land on Nasdaq.
As the first cryptocurrency stock in the true sense, Coinbase’s listing is highly anticipated by the industry and its valuation is as high as 100 billion U.S. dollars.
Under the anticipation of Coinbase’s listing, platform currencies represented by BNB and FTT have exploded early. In particular, BNB’s rise has shown a destructive momentum. In recent days, it has soared from more than US$300 to more than US$600, and its market value was once close to US$100 billion.
For a long time, platform currencies with business support have been considered high-quality investment targets. The outbreak of platform currencies has allowed investors to revisit the potential of high-quality trading platforms and platform currencies.
At the same time, the currency circle is also thinking about a question: who will be the next Coinbase or Binance?
The cryptocurrency derivatives trading platform FTX is considered by some to be a promising player.
The founder SBF (Sam Bankman-Fried)’s personal influence, innovative and unique products, increasingly perfect ecological layout, circle connection and various successful attempts to make breakthroughs all make FTX, a unicorn that has only been established for only two years, faintly The temperament of a giant…
“$135 million to name the Heat’s home stadium”
Before Coinbase’s listing sensation inside and outside the circle, there is also an event in the cryptocurrency field that has the same out-of-the-box power: FTX won the naming rights for the NBA Heat’s home stadium for 19 years for $135 million.
On the evening of April 7, the NBA Heat officially announced that FTX.US will serve as the exclusive naming right for the Miami Heat’s main stadium for the next 19 years, ending American Airlines’ 20-year exclusive naming right for the stadium.
In other words, after the Miami Heat’s home stadium will be named FTX Stadium. This is a good business for both FTX and Miami.
As we all know, Miami is one of the most densely populated and wealthiest cities in the United States, and its entertainment and financial industries are extremely developed.
In addition, the convergence of diverse cultures also gives Miami an open gene. For cryptocurrency, the city is also tolerant and friendly.
Take the Mayor of Miami, Francis Suarez, who is a real cryptocurrency fan. Not only does he own bitcoin, he also intends to consider allowing citizens to use bitcoin to pay taxes, and to build Miami into a bitcoin mining center.
Through previous speeches and statements, it is not difficult for us to know that Francis Suarez hopes that through the relaxation of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, more high-tech companies will be attracted to Miami, making Miami a cryptocurrency hub in the United States and the world.
For FTX, its birth has been less than two years. Although it is well-known in the field of cryptocurrency, it is still an unknown person in the traditional world. Therefore, going out and breaking through the circle is the demand for FTX’s further development.
SBF also said in an interview with the media: “We feel that we have developed a very good product. We very much hope that more people will learn about it and give it a try. We want to see what more users think.”
Miami is a very good choice. From SBF’s point of view, Miami is a hub for the continuous development of cryptocurrency business. This eye-catching transaction may attract a group of new users who have never been exposed to cryptocurrency.
For Miami-Dade County, the revenue of 135 million U.S. dollars, and the link to the cryptocurrency field’s most dynamic derivatives exchange, to further establish its status as a cryptocurrency hub is the best of both worlds.
In addition, regarding this transaction, the SBF, which believes in “altruism”, also stated that part of the reason was “For the good of humanity.”
From the report of the Miami Herald, we can also learn that part of the money in this transaction will be used by Miami-Dade County to prevent gun violence and increase county income.
Both business and charity, this is a win-win business.
“FTX’s Alternative Way to Rise”
In May 2019, FTX was formally established, focusing on derivatives trading. The original intention of SBF, a trader, to create FTX is also very simple. The derivatives trading platforms currently on the market have many pain points and are not innovative and friendly enough.
However, it was a piece of “negative” news that really made the crypto world start to notice this new exchange and the young man at the helm of SBF.
In February 2020, Bitfinex ranking data showed that accounts certified as FTX CEO SBF had a floating loss of more than 13 million U.S. dollars. After the news came out, it immediately sparked discussion. DFund founder Zhao Dong even asked on Twitter whether SBF had embezzled the assets of FTX users.
SBF responded: “They are all personal assets. This is also a hedge against short selling in other places. Bitfinex has a big discount compared to other markets.”
Facts have also proved that in addition to Bitfinex, SBF also carried out hedging operations on BitMEX at the time. Public data shows that SBF and the market maker Alameda it founded have made more than 7,000 Bitcoins on BitMEX.
If the above-mentioned “negative” is just the foreshadowing of the story, then the vigorous DeFi boom will push SBF to the center of the stage, and the drama of “Genius Trader” and “King of Arbitrage” has begun.
However, because of one thing, the outside world also has a good impression of SBF other than “admiration”: to take over the “mess” of SushiSwap, to help and promote the smooth transfer of SushiSwap to the community.
All in all, if you look back at the DeFi boom in 2020, SBF is one of the names that cannot be bypassed.
What about FTX? It seems that compared to SBF’s personal limelight, the FTX as a company has a weaker momentum? In fact, before SBF became a topical figure in the cryptocurrency market, FTX was accumulating power.
Launched FTX US, a US compliant exchange; launched DeFi index; launched equity token for the first time; promoted the construction of Solana’s decentralized trading platform Serum, etc.
Of course, for FTX and the entire cryptocurrency market, the more important and eye-catching innovation is the equity token.
Combining cryptocurrency and stocks, the first attempt was the currency market BISS, but the platform came to an end due to various reasons such as supervision.
FTX’s equity token allows qualified traders to trade shares of Tesla and other companies 24/7, 365 days a year, breaking the restrictions of the stock market.
Moreover, the equity token is supported by the stocks of the regulated brokers at a ratio of 1:1, enabling traders to obtain all the economic benefits of holding the stock itself: dividends, stock splits, etc.
Of course, as a derivatives platform, in addition to the spot trading of stocks, FTX has also increased the futures trading of corresponding products, and allows users to trade with up to 101 times the leverage.
The success of the equity token gave FTX a taste of the sweetness, and it also allowed them to dig deeper into this product-further launching the Pre-IPO product.
Before Airbnb’s IPO, FTX launched the Airbnb Pre-IPO Airbnb Contracts derivative contract; in anticipation of Coinbase’s upcoming IPO, it launched the Coinbase IPO pre-sale contract trading market.
Equity token, an innovative product, is like a sharp dagger. It has opened a hole in the derivatives trading market, allowing the cryptocurrency market to see the strength and innovation of FTX.
“Circle Connection and Breakthrough”
Grayscale introduces cryptocurrency into the stock market, and FTX introduces stock into cryptocurrency.
In addition to providing users in the cryptocurrency field with a channel to invest in stocks, the attempt of FTX equity tokens has taken a big step forward for “asset digitization”.
While the launch of equity tokens aroused market attention, another hot news about SBF was also exposed by the media.
On November 5, the results of the US presidential election, which has attracted worldwide attention, are urgently to be announced. According to data from the campaign fund tracking website Open Secret, the SBF donated US$5.2 million to the campaign of US Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden. The amount is in the “CEO “Donors” are second only to the founder of Bloomberg.
At the same time, SBF was also found to be a member of the Democratic Super PAC (Political Action Committee) “Future Forward”. Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskowitz and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt are both members of the PAC the member of.
In everyone’s impression, the connection and combination of cryptocurrency and the US presidential election still remain in products such as the “US Presidential Election Prediction Market”. Direct donations to presidential candidates like SBF are extremely rare. Although there are also cryptographic donations, the amount and dissemination effect are far less than SBF.
This donation is not difficult to speculate about SBF’s intentions. On the one hand, Biden is more friendly to the development of the cryptocurrency industry than Trump’s appointment. The donation is conducive to the development of the entire cryptocurrency industry and FTX itself; second, on the cryptocurrency industry. Supervision in the currency field has always been a sword hanging over many exchanges, and donations are conducive to maintaining a good relationship with the supervisory authorities.
Of course, setting aside the deep-seated purpose mentioned above, the donation itself is also an event marketing, especially when the cryptocurrency circle is eager to gain wider attention and acceptance. SBF’s political donation is undoubtedly a traversal from the inside of the circle. An excellent marketing case that penetrates the outside world.
From equity tokens, to political donations, to the naming of the Heat’s main stadium mentioned at the beginning of the article. It is not difficult to see that FTX led by SBF, a trading platform that has been established for less than two years, has considerable ambitions:
Starting from the field of cryptocurrency, but not limited to the field of cryptocurrency, through attempts to connect and break through the circle, output the influence on the traditional world, gain wider attention and users, and build its own moat and kingdom.
“The next Coinbase or Binance?”
Right now Coinbase is going public, and Binance has relied on the skyrocketing of the platform currency to attract investors’ attention to the trading platform. Will FTX be the next Coinbase or Binance?
Compared to Coinbase, FTX and Binance have more similarities.
From the perspective of product innovation, Binance has always been a leader in innovation, from IEO to exchange public chain, almost every time it brings a trend. FTX is also full of innovation, as can be seen from the launch of equity tokens. On April 12, Binance announced the launch of Tesla’s equity tokens, which to a certain extent reflects the innovation and advancement of FTX.
From the perspective of marketing communication, whether it is naming the NBA Heat’s home stadium or donating to Biden’s campaign, it is an excellent event marketing, which is inferior to some of Binance’s marketing.
In addition, from the perspective of the entire ecological landscape, although FTX has been established for less than two years, it has begun to build an ecosystem in the two dimensions of centralization and decentralization like Binance, and it has been quite effective:
In a centralized world, based on FTX, while occupying the market with innovative and differentiated products, it focuses on compliance and launches the US compliance branch FTX.US; in a decentralized world, the layout is based on the Solana public chain Decentralized trading platform Serum, AMM agreement Raydium, prime broker agreement Oxygen, etc., complete the DeFi ecological universe.
At the same time, FTX also acquired mobile news and portfolio tracking APP Blockfolio at a “sky price” of US$150 million to gain more retail investors. To some extent, this is similar to Binance’s acquisition of CoinMarketCap.
It can be seen that, relying on SBF’s personal influence, relying on innovative products, increasingly perfect ecology, and circle-level connection and breakthrough play, FTX has achieved a full-scale explosion since 2020.
According to FTX official data, in 2020, FTX’s transaction volume will increase by a blowout, with a total transaction volume of more than 385 billion U.S. dollars and an average daily transaction volume of 1.06 billion U.S. dollars, an increase of more than 1,000% compared to 2019; the platform has more than 100,000 new users , Compared to 2019, the growth has also exceeded 800%.
Since 2021, FTX has reached a new level, and the current average daily transaction volume has exceeded 7.9 billion US dollars.
All victory is the victory of innovation, the victory of values, a trader and entrepreneur who believe in “altruism”, a platform “created by traders and serving traders”, SBF and his FTX will be in the next market Where is the position in the competition and how much impact it will have is as difficult to answer as the question “Will FTX be the next Binance?”
But what can be observed is that FTX, as a unicorn, is slowly advancing on the road of being a “giant.”
Reference materials:
“2020 FTX Memorabilia” “All the 2020 data you want to know about FTX is here”, FTX Industry Insight
“The Caretaker SBF: The Intention Behind Biden’s US$5.2 Million Donation”, Chain Catcher
