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
Laserfiche Expands AI Data Capture with Auto-Classification to Transform Data into Business Intelligence28.1.2026 16:00:00 CET | Press release
New intelligent features automatically organize and classify documents, transforming how organizations manage information at scale. Laserfiche — the leading SaaS provider of intelligent content management — today announced major enhancements to its AI-powered data extraction tool, Smart Fields. The update introduces automated document classification and tagging, allowing organizations to move from unstructured content to informed decisions in seconds. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260128228490/en/ Using natural language prompts instead of rigid, ruled-based OCR, Smart Fields can now identify document type — such as invoices, taxpayer identification forms, or student transcripts — and automatically apply the correct metadata template using AI. Users can also use Smart Fields to automatically add informational and security tags to files that meet certain criteria, defined using a natural language prompt. Users
Intersolar Africa 2026 to Position Nairobi as East Africa’s Key Hub for Solar and Energy Storage28.1.2026 15:20:00 CET | Press release
East Africa is emerging as one of the world’s most dynamic regions for solar power and battery storage. On 3–4 February 2026, Intersolar Africa will take place at the Sarit Expo Centre in Nairobi, expanding from the successful Intersolar Summit Africa in 2025 into a full international exhibition and conference. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260128955267/en/ Intersolar Africa will take place on February 3-4 in Nairobi. East Africa’s Energy Market and Opportunities Rapid population growth, industrialization, and rising electricity demand are putting pressure on power systems across East Africa. Limited generation capacity, grid instability, and high electricity costs constrain economic growth. Solar photovoltaics combined with energy storage have emerged as the most cost-effective and scalable solution to expand capacity, stabilize supply, and strengthen long-term energy security for businesses and communities
Reply and the University of Milan Launch Experimental Research on Biological Computing Based on Cortical Labs’ CL1 Platform28.1.2026 15:10:00 CET | Press release
Reply [EXM, STAR: REY] today announced the start of a collaboration with the Department of Pathophysiology and Transplantation of the University of Milan, together with the “Centro Dino Ferrari” of the University of Milan - Ospedale Policlinico, for a new research and experimental initiative in the field of biological computing. The project aims to explore innovative approaches to learning and information processing through the integration of biological systems and digital technologies. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260128715625/en/ This initiative represents the starting point of an advanced research programme aimed at exploring new computational paradigms. At the core of the initiative is the CL1 biological computer developed by Cortical Labs, an Australian biotechnology company. Unlike conventional silicon-based computing architectures, this technology leverages the processing capabilities of living human
Brown Brothers Harriman Investor Services and SimCorp Forge Strategic Alliance to Provide Integrated End-to-End Technology, Data, and Services Solution for Global Asset Managers28.1.2026 15:00:00 CET | Press release
New offering leverages BBH Infomediary® to combine the benefits of the SimCorp One enterprise platform, including SimCorp Managed Business Services, with BBH Investor Services’ fund servicing and custody product suite. BBH Infomediary used to integrate BBH and SimCorp’s platforms and to connect to third parties in a unique open architecture model. Addresses the needs of global asset managers seeking to streamline and modernize their operating model. Quoniam Asset Management, a leading systematic manager, is the first to benefit from this data-driven offering. Brown Brothers Harriman (BBH), a privately held global financial services firm, and SimCorp, a leading global financial technology company, today announced a new strategic alliance to address the needs of global asset managers requiring an integrated, end-to-end technology, data, and services solution. Enhancing both firms’ existing offerings, this solution uses BBH Infomediary to integrate SimCorp One’s front and middle office ca
Wunderkind Joins Klaviyo Marketplace, Bringing Identity-Based Personalization and Revenue Growth to E-Commerce Brands28.1.2026 15:00:00 CET | Press release
New integration unlocks greater site identification, real-time personalization, and scalable triggered messaging Wunderkind, the AI decisioning platform that delivers identity resolution and cross-channel personalization to scale performance and reach, today announced its official debut on the Klaviyo App Marketplace. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260128210560/en/ The integration brings Wunderkind’s identity insights directly into Klaviyo’s B2C CRM, powering real-time profiles, segments, and flows that help brands recognize more customers earlier in the journey and deliver relevant experiences across email, SMS and other Klaviyo-powered channels. By layering Wunderkind’s industry-leading Identity Network — built on more than 9 billion device profiles and over a billion unique user identities — into Klaviyo’s unified customer profile, marketers can strengthen their understanding of who customers are, unify id
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