Cody McGrath 
Following the recent $150M fundraising, global cryptocurrency exchange KuCoin hopes to move beyond centralized trading services and focus on DeFi, NFTs, and Web3.
On May 10, the cryptocurrency exchange announced a $150 million pre-Series B investment round, valuing the company at $10 billion.
According to CEO Johnny Lyu, he said that the latest fundraising round primarily intends to expand the exchange’s collaboration with important industry players as well as boost crypto’s widespread adoption.
“KuCoin is financially healthy. […] We are still in contact with many VCs, and we are open to having another round in the near future, as long as we can find partners that share the same value and vision with us.”
Jump Crypto, the cryptocurrency branch of renowned quantitative trading firm Jump Trading Group is leading the latest KuCoin raise. The USD Coin (USDC) stablecoin’s crypto investment subsidiary, Circle Ventures, is one of the new investors in the round.
IDG Capital, a significant investment business, and Matrix Partners, a private equity investment firm, were among the investors in KuCoin’s $20 million Series A funding round in November 2018.
KuCoin intends to establish and invest in crypto wallets, services connected to decentralized finance (DeFi), GameFi, and nonfungible token (NFT) platforms as part of its aim to focus on decentralized trading services and presence in Web3.
The company intends to invest in its subsidiaries KuCoin Labs and KuCoin Ventures, as well as the KCC public community chain.
“Decentralization is an irreversible trend, but we believe it will coexist with centralization in the future.” KuCoin aspires to better serve the demands of all types of investors, according to Lyu.
He also mentioned that the company hopes to deploy decentralized wallet products later in Q2 2022, as well as its NFT marketplace Windwave.