Crypto Exchange Liquid Claims Unicorn Status With New Funding Round

Liquid, a cryptocurrency exchange platform operated by Quoine Pte. Ltd., has announced the first close of an ongoing, undisclosed Series C funding round which the company claims has brought its valuation “to over US$1 billion” and established itself as one of only two tech unicorns in Japan.

Mike Kayamori, co-founder and CEO of Quoine, told
TechCrunch that the plan was to add more investors. “This round will be purely
strategic. We want to get traditional, mainstream [investors] on board,” he
said.

Kayamori declined to reveal exactly how much has been raised
or the exact valuation of the company.

The round of funding was led by investment firm IDG Capital,
with participation from Bitmain Technologies, the world’s largest manufacturer
of cryptocurrency mining rigs, Liquid said
on Wednesday. The company said the new capital will be used to fuel global
expansion, for product development of its core trading exchange business, and to
enter the security token market.

“As we enter into a new age of digital disruption in
financial services, consumers are increasingly placing a higher value on
digital assets and technologies they can trust and use with greater ease,” Kayamori
said in a media statement.

Quoine previously raised US$20 million in venture capital
from Japanese investment firms JAFCO, SBI, B Dash Ventures, Mistletoe, and ULS
Group. In 2017, the company conducted an initial coin offering (ICO) which raised
US$105 million.

Founded in 2014 in Japan, Quoine is a crypto startup with
offices in Tokyo, Singapore, and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Quoine’s Liquid
product is a cryptocurrency platform promising top security and high liquidity.

Launched in September 2018, Liquid provides trading,
exchange and other related services powered by blockchain technology. The Liquid roadmap includes Liquid
Black, an upgraded account status with special privileges and benefits, a
Liquid mobile app with full trading and exchange features, and the release of
the alpha version of the Liquid Distributed Ledger.

Quoine is currently in the process of applying for a formal
banking license to expand its range of services.