Key Points:
The cryptocurrency exchange is in talks to raise more capital to open the market.
The company plans to expand into Europe, Asia, and the UK early next year.
The companys current and only priority is to raise money through strategic investors.
A Bitstamp spokesperson said the exchange kicked off the fundraising process at the end of June, with Galaxy Digital Holdings as an advisor. The company plans to use the money for operations, including launching derivatives trading in Europe next year and expanding operations in Asian and UK markets.
“Our current and exclusive priority is to raise money through strategic investors to accelerate Bitstamps growth by providing new products and services to retail and institutional crypto customers,” Graftieaux said in a statement.
The U.S. regulatory crackdown and banking crisis have also made it a lot more difficult to trade crypto in USD. This seems to have prompted crypto companies to move to more breathable markets.
Founded in 2011, Bitstamp, based in Luxembourg, is one of the oldest cryptocurrency exchanges, having been the main venue for Bitcoin trading, acting as an alternative to Bitcoin exchanges. The dominant at that time was Mt.Gox.
Recently, Binance.US is bleeding. A week after the SEC lawsuit, market makers and traders left the exchange in droves. As measured by aggregate market depth for the 17 tokens on the exchange, liquidity has dropped by almost 80%. The market share of Binance.US, the US version of Binance, plummeted from 27% in April to just over 1% at the end of June.
Taking advantage of the Binance slump, three smaller exchanges, Kraken, LMAX, and Bitstamp, jumped up by 25.5%, 9%, and 6%, respectively, according to Kaiko. Currently, Bitstamp USA, the US unit, has a coveted license called BitLicense, which allows it to serve customers in the state of New York.