FTX，Alameda Alums為加密貨幣交易所初創公司籌集了1700萬美元 - 彭博社

Can Sun攝影師：Stephanie Keith/Bloomberg一羣前FTX和Alameda Research的員工籌集了1700萬美元，用於打造一個名為Backpack的加密貨幣交易所，加入了尋求填補前僱主Sam Bankman-Fried的加密帝國倒閉留下的空白的初創公司的行列。

總部位於迪拜的Backpack公司還提供加密錢包和一個名為Mad Lads的NFT收藏品，表示已經通過A輪融資達到了1.2億美元的估值。首席執行官兼聯合創始人Armani Ferrante是Alameda Research的早期員工。另一位聯合創始人Can Sun是FTX的前總法律顧問。該公司40人團隊中有5人是前FTX員工。

該交易所於2023年10月推出，並已在迪拜獲得虛擬資產服務提供商許可。這輪融資由加密風險投資公司Placeholder VC領投，Wintermute、Robot Ventures、Selini Capital、Amber Group等公司參與。該公司正在進入美國的部分州。

“如今創建一個交易所與一兩年前創建一個交易所大不相同，”Ferrante説。“尤其是在FTX的災難之後，我認為現在的門檻要高得多。”

在FTX倒閉後的一段時間，“我們曾參加過商務會議，由於我們以前在FTX的工作經驗，對方決定認為與我們合作太過風險，”Sun説。“自那時以來，我們沒有那麼頻繁地看到這種情況。”

The Backpack exchange has more than 420,000 verified users globally, and is popular among Chinese-speaking users, the company said. “There’s a huge market in Asia for crypto trading venues,” Ferrante said. It reached $6.53 billion of one-side trading volume in February, according to the company.

Backpack is among recent debuts that are capitalizing on opportunities created by the demise of FTX. EDX Markets, the crypto-trading venue backed by Citadel Securities and Fidelity Digital Assets, went live last year and is 擴張 into Singapore. In Europe, Rulematch was 在去年12月推出，目標是金融機構。

Ferrante, who studied computer science at the University of California, Berkeley, got into crypto when he met Bankman-Fried and joined Alameda to work on its trading system during a brief stint in 2018. Later, he became a key developer on the Solana blockchain. A startup he created lost about 80% of its operating capital on FTX when the exchange failed.

Sun testified during Bankman-Fried’s criminal trial in New York in October. He said he was unaware of the company’s misuse of customer funds until its final days and declined to come up with a legal justification to explain the missing customer money when asked by Bankman-Fried. Sun had a non-prosecution agreement with the US government.

Claire Zhang, a former FTX employee and Ferrante’s wife, is also working for Backpack, focusing on operations. Another core team member, Tristan Yver, was formerly with FTX US.