• Friday, April 26, 2024
businessday logo

BusinessDay

FTX global footprint boosts revenue 1000% high

FTX  global footprint boosts revenue 1000% high

FTX, a cryptocurrency derivative exchange company rode the crypto craze to a billion dollars in revenue last year while expanding its global footprint through a flurry of acquisitions, CNBC reported.

The exchange took revenue from below $90 million in 2020 to more than $1 billion last year as cryptocurrencies hit an all-time high, the U.S. business was only a blip on the top line, accounting for less than 5 percent of revenue.

The crypto exchange’s revenue soared more than 1,000 percent from $89 million to $1.02 billion in 2021. Its profitability, like many start-ups, depends on how it was measured.

Also, operating income was $272 million, up from $14 million a year earlier. FTX saw a net income of $388 million last year, up from just $17 million a year earlier.

The audited financials gave a rare glimpse into the privately held company’s finances. FTX was profitable, quickly expanding across the globe and saw breakneck growth.

However, Sam Bankman-Fried, chief executive officer at FTX empire, expanded as the company bought start-ups across Switzerland and Australia.

Read also: Imo to leverage tech for industrial growth, job creation

Following the 2021 financial report, the company brought in $270 million in revenue in the first quarter of 2022 and was on track to do roughly $1.1 billion in revenue in 2022, according to an investor deck shared with CNBC.

Going forward the company stated that it is unclear how they held up in the second quarter as crypto prices plunged during the recent so-called “Crypto Winter.”

Similarly, its publicly traded Coinbase experienced a cash boom during crypto’s bull market, with $7.4 billion in revenue and $3.6 billion of net income last year.

while in the second quarter of this year, the company reported $808.3 million in revenue, a decline of 64 percent from the year-ago quarter, and a surprise net loss of $1.1 billion, compared with $1.59 billion in net income a year earlier, as retail trading volumes cratered.

In addition, the report disclosed that FTX had roughly $2.5 billion in cash at the end of last year and made a 27 percent profit margin.

Inclusively, margins were closer to 50 percent if advertising and “related party” expenses were stripped out. It last raised money in January, collecting $400 million from investors like SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2 and Tiger Global, at a $32 billion valuation.

Furthermore, the crypto company acquired distressed assets. In July, it also signed a deal that gives it the option to buy lender BlockFi and is discussing acquiring South Korean Bithumb in the future.