Jihan Wu’s crypto firm Matrixport achieves unicorn status

Bitmain co-founder Jihan Wu’s second crypto venture Matrixport closed its Series C funding round with a valuation of over $1 billion, just two and a half years after its launch.

As one of Asia’s fastest-growing digital asset financial services platforms,  Matrixport marks an incredible comeback for Jihan Wu who stepped down from the Bitcoin mining giant Bitmain, following a years-long dispute with fellow co-founder Micree Zhan.

The crypto financial services platform classifies itself as a neo-bank offering a variety of services, including trading and lending. As of March this year, the company revealed it held over $10 billion in assets under management (AuM).

Commenting on the Singapore-based startup’s success, Chief Executive Officer and former Bitmain employee Ge Yuesheng said

Crypto banking is still a fast-growing niche when compared to wallets and exchanges. Our clients are mainly high net-worth individuals in crypto who have a wide range of expectations of risk and return.

It appears China’s recent bitcoin mining crackdown has not phased the company’s plans on going public within the next 5 years. Matrixport, which previously targeted Chinese clients, is readjusting its strategy to target clients in other Asian jurisdictions as well as  Europe and North America, pending the required regulatory approvals. Despite the shift, Ge claims that it has been able to maintain its current AuM with plans to have hundreds of billions of dollars in AuM in the next few years.

Next up: Malta Week

Don’t miss out on amazing networking opportunities and exclusive industry insights at Malta Week. Four leading shows will bring the best of the business back-to-back to a first-class meeting point. Malta Week will consist of SiGMA, AIBC, Med-Tech World and AGS, each presenting the top developments of their focal industries.

The cross-collaboration of each brand make Malta Week the number one destination for leading think-tanks of the gaming sector, emerging tech, digital health and digital marketing. The middle of the Mediterranean is the perfect place for multi-faceted business deals and face-to-face conversations with leading affiliates, policymakers and thought leaders.