Crypto.com has secured a $400 million strategic investment from Citadel Securities at a $20 billion valuation, marking the Singapore-based exchange’s first-ever institutional funding round. Announced Thursday, the deal gives Ken Griffin’s market-making firm an ownership stake and is intended to accelerate Crypto.com’s push into “all asset classes, including tokenized securities and derivatives,” the company said.
Founded in 2016, Crypto.com has until now relied on private and retail funding. CEO and co-founder Kris Marszalek framed the deal as a milestone for both the company and the sector, saying the investment ushers in “a new era of institutionalization” as crypto increasingly becomes “the rails for finance.”
Citadel’s move is part of a broader migration of Wall Street capital into crypto infrastructure. Last November, Citadel Securities backed rival exchange Kraken with a $200 million investment alongside Jane Street. Other traditional players have also taken stakes in the space: Intercontinental Exchange (owner of the NYSE) invested in OKX, and Nasdaq put $50 million into Gemini. “The convergence of traditional financial markets and digital asset infrastructure is an exciting evolution,” Citadel Securities President Jim Esposito said, noting the potential to boost market efficiency.
Both firms emphasized tokenized securities and derivatives as a key focus—efforts to put stocks, bonds and other instruments on blockchain rails and enable near-continuous trading. Crypto firms themselves have been expanding into conventional finance products as well: Coinbase launched U.S. stock trading for users earlier this year.
Crypto.com sits at No. 11 by exchange trading volume, according to CoinMarketCap, and offers crypto trading, U.S. stock access and prediction markets to retail customers. The company won conditional approval for a U.S. national trust bank charter in February, a step toward broader regulated services.
The investment comes against a subdued market backdrop: Bitcoin is down about 28% year-to-date and the overall crypto market capitalization hovers near $2.2 trillion, CoinGecko data show. The deal also lands amid lingering political scrutiny of Crypto.com’s close ties to the Trump administration—Crypto.com is a business partner and investor in Trump Media & Technology Group, has donated millions to a political committee backing the president, and its affiliated CRO token was reportedly used to pay $1 million in bonuses following a UFC event held on the White House lawn.
With Citadel Securities onboard, Crypto.com appears poised to accelerate its institutional roadmap—betting that stronger ties to traditional finance will help expand trading venues and product offerings even as prices and sentiment remain choppy.
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