EDX bags $76M from SBI, proving institutional crypto still has friends in high places 💼

EDX Markets, a cryptocurrency exchange focused on institutional investors, raised $76 million in a Series C funding round led by Japan's SBI Holdings, the company said Monday. The capital will be used to expand spot trading, clearing and settlement services, develop new products and support international growth.

EDX operates a US-focused institutional spot exchange and a Singapore-based perpetual futures venue for eligible non-US institutional clients. The latest round builds on previous backing from traditional financial companies including Citadel Securities, Fidelity Digital Assets, Virtu Financial and Charles Schwab, signaling continued investor appetite for institutional crypto infrastructure even as broader venture funding remains below its 2021 peak.

The company has steadily expanded its institutional footprint. In May, Ripple Prime integrated with the exchange, enabling institutional clients to access EDX's spot and perpetual futures liquidity through Ripple's prime brokerage platform, with the two companies also planning to support RLUSD as a settlement and collateral asset. EDX has processed as much as $685 million in daily trading volume.

Other crypto infrastructure startups have also secured fresh capital. Fomo, a cross-chain trading startup, recently raised $75 million at a $550 million valuation, while Trace Finance, a startup building stablecoin-based cross-border payment and settlement infrastructure, raised $32 million to expand its platform. San Francisco-based Framework Ventures, an early investor in several crypto startups, recently raised $400 million for a new fund targeting frontier technologies including blockchain networks and decentralized finance, according to Fortune.