Citadel Securities agreed to invest $400mn in Crypto.com, its second investment in a crypto exchange in eight months, as financial institutions increasingly use crypto technology not to replace the existing system, but to make it more profitable.
Citadel Takes $400mn Stake in Crypto.com as TradFi Integration Accelerates
17 July 2026 - 00:30 CEST
By Ana Pereira
The deal, which values Crypto.com at $20bn, follows Citadel's $200mn investment last November in Payward, the parent of the Kraken exchange. That deal valued Payward at $20bn as well.
The exchange's native token, Cronos (CRO), jumped nearly 9% on the news, trading at $0.06 at 20:38UTC.
Crypto.com said it plans to use the capital to accelerate its expansion across asset classes, including tokenized securities and derivatives, creating "a more efficient 24/7 financial ecosystem," the company said in a release.
The exchange is seeking to combine digital assets with products traditionally offered by brokers and exchanges as crypto platforms compete to become broader financial-services businesses.
"The size of the opportunity in front of us is staggering, as crypto increasingly becomes the rails for finance," Crypto.com co-founder and CEO Kris Marszalek.
Citadel Securities President Jim Esposito said the exchange has the "foundation to support the continued institutionalization of the digital asset market."
The companies did not disclose the size of the stake acquired by Citadel, nor did they identify the other participants in the funding round.
First outside round
Founded in 2016, Crypto.com previously raised about $26.7mn through the 2017 sale of its native token. Token buyers, however, did not receive equity in Crypto.com, making the 2017 token sale distinct from Citadel Securities' investment.
The Singapore-based exchange offers crypto trading as well as stocks and prediction markets to US customers. It also received conditional approval to establish a US national trust bank in February.
The fundraising comes during a weaker period for digital assets. Bitcoin has fallen almost 27% this year amid economic uncertainty and geopolitical tensions, trading at around $64,000 at 21:00UTC. Spot trading volume on centralized exchanges fell 18.9% from the previous quarter to $3tn in the second quarter, its lowest level in two years, according to CCData.
