ASCENDEX
3.11.2021 20:58:03 CET | Business Wire | Press release
AscendEX , a global cryptocurrency financial platform, has announced the close of a $50 million Series B raise led by Polychain Capital and Hack VC , with participation from Jump Capital and Alameda Research , as well as Uncorrelated Ventures , Eterna Capital , Acheron Trading , Nothing Research , and Palm Drive Capital . Imperii Partners served as an exclusive financial advisor to AscendEX in support of the Series B fundraise process.
AscendEX, launched under the name “BitMax” in July 2018, offers exchange, custody, and staking services to over one million retail and institutional clients globally. The platform has positioned itself as an infrastructure partner to blockchain companies, specifically in the decentralized finance (“DeFi”) sector, and operates as a validator and yield farming portal for over 60 token projects.
“We are grateful to have very prominent investors involved in our latest fundraising round, ” said George Cao, CEO and Co-founder of AscendEX. “Polychain Capital and Hack VC, as active catalysts of the DeFi ecosystem, have backed some of the industry’s most innovative blockchain networks, exchanges, and trading institutions. Similarly, Alameda Research, founded by Sam Bankman-Fried, has emerged as one of the most prolific investors in the industry, fueling growth within both CeFi and DeFi. Participation from Jump Capital, a seasoned Crypto and Fintech investor, further showcases the success of our deep roots in traditional finance, as AscendEX’s core team is proud of our extensive experience in Wall Street quant trading.”
AscendEX is well positioned at the nexus between centralized & decentralized financial sectors, as evidenced by its AscendEX Earn products, and cross-collateralized staking products that allow users to generate yield while trading on leverage. By empowering retail and institutional users to maximize their trading and earning potential, AscendEX has achieved over $200 million in average daily trade volume and provides competitive yields among competing centralized exchanges.
“AscendEX plans to use the Series B funds to accelerate international market entry, and catalyze further product innovation, specifically focused on blockchain-based yield generating protocols,” notes Shane Molidor, Global Head of Business Development at AscendEX. “Building a bridge to the DeFi ecosystem has allowed AscendEX to differentiate itself from other cryptocurrency exchanges and has made the platform a popular destination for innovative DeFi projects to conduct initial exchange offerings (“IEOs”). We are thrilled to collaborate with our new investors to further solidify our unique competitive advantages.”
Sam Trabucco, Co-CEO of Alameda Research, added, “Alameda has had nothing but great experiences working with AscendEX as a customer and market maker, and we’re thrilled to keep expanding our relationship in new ways with this investment.”
“AscendEX is a leader in transitioning crypto projects from primary to secondary markets, as seen through the continued success of the tokens listed on the exchange, ” said Olaf Carlson-Wee, Founder & CEO at Polychain Capital. “We look forward to deepening our collaboration with AscendEX by providing insights into evolving industry trends and providing guidance on top-tier projects to list on the exchange.”
AscendEX uniquely provides dedicated auxiliary support for blockchain projects seeking to list on the platform, including consultation on the token economic design, secondary market liquidity strategies, staking support, liquidity mining, as well as global marketing support and translation services. These supporting services further differentiate AscendEX’s IEO process from other mainstream exchanges, and in turn, allow listings to achieve industry leading results.
"In an extremely competitive crypto exchange landscape, AscendEX has impressively emerged as the leading venue for innovative crypto projects in DeFi, GameFi and crypto infrastructure , " said Saurabh Sharma, Partner at Jump Capital. "AscendEX remains ahead of the curve by constantly innovating and offering unmet needs such as broad staking access and DeFi yield farming for retail investors."
Alex Pack at Hack VC added, “The concept of extracting more value from the crypto held in your wallet has become immensely popular with decentralized lending and yield farming protocol – AscendEX has further expanded on this by cross-collateralizing their wallets with validator nodes, allowing users to trade while earning. No other exchange is offering this degree of flexibility for users to earn and participate in blockchain governance while also trading on leverage.”
To learn more about AscendEX, please visit AscendEX.com .
About AscendEX
AscendEX is a global cryptocurrency financial platform servicing more than one million institutional and retail traders with the resources needed to obtain more value from their crypto investments. Operating at the nexus of centralized finance and decentralized finance, AscendEX’s platform features access to futures and spot trading, a robust wallet infrastructure, and staking support for over 200 industry-leading blockchain projects, all producing industry leading yields and returns, further driving the growth of the crypto ecosystem. In efforts to cultivate scalable and secure forms of decentralized financing, AscendEX has emerged as a leading platform by ROI on its “initial exchange offerings” through supporting some of the industry’s most innovative projects from the DeFi ecosystem. To learn more about how AscendEX leverages best practices from both Wall Street and the cryptocurrency ecosystem to extract the highest value per dollar to its users, please visit www.AscendEX.com
.
About Polychain Capital
The emergence of bitcoin and subsequent blockchain technologies has generated a new digital asset class in which scarcity is based on mathematical properties. Through cryptographic verification and game-theoretic equilibrium, blockchain-based digital assets can be created, issued, and transmitted using software. Polychain is an investment firm committed to exceptional returns for investors through actively managed portfolios of these blockchain assets.
About Hack VC
Hack VC is a private equity firm based in Incline Village, Nevada.
About Alameda Research
Alameda Research was founded in October 2017. We manage over $1 billion in digital assets and trade $1-10 billion per day across thousands of products: all major coins and altcoins, as well as their derivatives. We have a full-scale global operation with the ability to trade on all major exchanges and markets.
About Jump Capital
Jump Capital is a leading venture fund investing in Crypto and Fintech globally.
About Uncorrelated Ventures
Uncorrelated Ventures was founded by Salil Deshpande with Bain's backing to focus on open source and infrastructure software, both traditional and decentralized. Over 14 years as general partner and managing director at Bay Partners and Bain Capital, Salil invested $350M+ into 50+ companies early. Additionally, Salil was on the Forbes Midas List of the 100 best-performing venture investors worldwide in 2013 – 2019, and Business Insider's inaugural Seed-100 list of the 100 best-performing seed investors in 2021.
About Eterna Capital
Eterna Capital is a UK-based venture capital fund focused on backing bold, innovative teams that harness the power of blockchain. Launched in March of 2018, Eterna has invested in numerous high profile deals and is committed to helping entrepreneurs reach their ambitious goals by providing unique insights and support.
About Acheron Trading
Acheron Trading is a designated market maker building liquid markets for digital assets. We trade on centralized and decentralized exchanges worldwide with over $250 million in assets under management.
About Nothing Research
Nothing Research is a multi-strategy venture firm investing in open finance initiatives. It was founded in March 2021 by a group of digital asset market veterans with professional backgrounds from research institutes, hedge funds and leading digital asset trading platforms such as Huobi and AscendEX. It differentiates itself with its desirability to build alongside founders and shapes narratives together with invested projects.
About Palm Drive Capital
Palm Drive Capital is a New York, and Miami-based venture capital and growth equity fund that has invested in over 100 leading software and internet companies around the world.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211103006190/en/
Link:
About Business Wire
Subscribe to releases from Business Wire
Subscribe to all the latest releases from Business Wire by registering your e-mail address below. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Latest releases from Business Wire
Fuji Electric Joins Helical Fusion as Strategic Investor and Official Partner as Series B Second Close Raises JPY 3.23 Billion8.10.2026 02:00:00 CEST | Press release
Major Japanese industrial players join Helical Fusion as construction of Helix HARUKA advances through a public-private partnership spanning government, national research infrastructure, and Japan’s manufacturing sector Helical Fusion Co., Ltd., a fusion energy company developing a Helical Stellarator with the goal of achieving commercially viable fusion power in the 2030s, today announced the completion of a JPY 3.23 billion (approximately USD 20.6 million) Series B second close. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20261007813917/en/ Helical Fusion and new investors for the Series B 2nd close The round marks another expansion of the industrial coalition forming around Helical Fusion’s Helix Program. Fuji Electric Co., Ltd., one of Japan’s major electrical and industrial equipment manufacturers, has joined Helical Fusion as both an investor and an Official Partner of the Helix Program. Other new investors in the sec
New INRIX Parking Scorecard Reveals Cities with the Most Parking, Highest Prices, and Lowest Availability7.10.2026 22:16:00 CEST | Press release
The Scorecard analyzes more than 120 downtown areas across North America and Europe, comparing parking availability, prices and curb use policies INRIX, a leader in transportation analytics and mobility intelligence, today released its first-ever INRIX Parking Scorecard, the largest comparative analyses of downtown parking conditions across North America and Europe. Drawing on parking availability, curb regulations, pricing data and parking infrastructure from more than 120 downtown areas in 14 countries, the report reveals significant differences in parking conditions and how cities allocate curb space. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20261007322796/en/ New INRIX Parking Scorecard: Where Downtown Parking Costs Most The Scorecard examines parking availability: the probability of finding a parking space alongside on-street and off-street parking pricing, and curb use policies. The findings show that parking condi
Lattice Collaborates with Arm to Advance Secure, Adaptable AI Data Center Infrastructure7.10.2026 22:00:00 CEST | Press release
Lattice Semiconductor (NASDAQ: LSCC), the low power programmable and platform firmware leader, today announced a collaboration with Arm to enable secure control, management, and platform adaptability for AI infrastructure. Combining Arm® AGI CPU server platforms with Lattice FPGAs and AMI firmware creates a solution that provides advanced security, manageability, connectivity, and flexibility for next-generation AI data center infrastructure. In Arm AGI CPU server platforms, Lattice FPGAs work alongside the CPU and baseboard management controller, with AMI firmware providing platform boot and management capabilities. The Lattice FPGAs act as companion chips providing secure control and management capabilities, enabling platform trust, connectivity, and infrastructure adaptability. Lattice FPGA technology also enables Open Compute Project (OCP)-compliant connectivity between the Host Processor Module (HPM) and Datacenter Secure Control Module (DC-SCM) through the LVDS Tunneling Protocol
Bentley Systems Announces Winners of the 2026 Year in Infrastructure Awards7.10.2026 19:55:00 CEST | Press release
New cycle of AI-enabled innovation is helping engineers solve harder problems faster (The Bentley Systems 2026 Year in Infrastructure Event) – Bentley Systems, Incorporated (Nasdaq: BSY), the infrastructure engineering software company, today announced the winners of the 2026 Year in Infrastructure Awards. For more than 20 years, the awards have honored the extraordinary work of infrastructure professionals and their innovative use of Bentley software to improve how infrastructure is designed, built, and operated. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20261007964087/en/ Bentley Systems announced the winners of the 2026 Year in Infrastructure Awards on October 7, 2026 (Photo courtesy of Bentley Systems) In 2026, over 300 projects were nominated by organizations in 53 countries. Winners were selected across 12 categories spanning the infrastructure lifecycle, industries, and disciplines by a panel of independent judges
Day One Strategy Founders Recognised in The LDC Top 50 Most Ambitious Business Leaders for 20267.10.2026 19:00:00 CEST | Press release
Hannah Mann and Abigail Stuart, Co-Founders of Day One Strategy have been recognised as one of The LDC Top 50 Most Ambitious Business Leaders for 2026. The programme was created by private equity investor LDC, part of Lloyds Banking Group, in partnership with The Times. Since 2018, it has celebrated the ambition and achievements of hundreds of exceptional entrepreneurs. This year The LDC Top 50 attracted more than 620 nominations from across the UK, highlighting the depth of ambition among leaders building successful businesses in every region and sector. The leaders featured are driven by an appetite for growth that is helping to build stronger, more sustainable businesses and a more competitive UK economy. They are expanding internationally, developing new products and services, challenging established markets and investing in their people. Together, their businesses generate £1.4bn in annual revenues and employ almost 8,500 people. Headquartered in 55 towns and cities, they demonstr
In our pressroom you can read all our latest releases, find our press contacts, images, documents and other relevant information about us.
Visit our pressroom