American Express, one of the leading financial firms in the United States announced its investment in cryptocurrency trading platform, FalconX.
American Express to Use Digital Assets to Drive Innovation
In apress release FalconX has confirmed a partnership with the New York-based financial firm, American Express. FalconX is an institutional crypto trading platform with the goal of connecting tissue for the tokenized economy of the future.
Although American Express Ventures did not disclose the actual size of the investment, it stated its plan to explore a potential opportunity to offer services related to digital assets.
Sponsored
American Express, one of the oldest financial firms in the United States currently has a market capitalization of approximately $95 billion. The partnership with FalconX is a move from the company to address the growing demand for digital assets and the evolving market of cryptocurrencies.
About FalconX
FalconX is a cryptocurrency platform that offers an all-in-one solution for institutional investors. The platform enables hundreds of institutions to transact billions of dollars in cryptocurrency trading, credit, and clearing.
FalconX is backed by Accel, Accomplice VC, American Express Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, Fenbushi Capital, Flybridge Capital Partners, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Avon Ventures. Raghu Yarlagadda, the CEO and co-founder of FalconX when commenting on the partnership stated:
We’re seeing growing interest from traditional asset managers who are adding cryptocurrencies as an inflationary hedge, catalyzed by recent macro-economic policies. It is a great pleasure to welcome American Express Ventures as we continue to invest in expanding FalconX’s product offering.
Cryptocurrency History of American Express
FalconX’s investment is not the first exposure to cryptocurrencies for American Express. The New York-based financial giant is one of the few banking institutions that have invested in the cryptocurrency industry before 2020.
In 2017, American Express invested in digital asset app Abra, and in 2018 AmEx trialed a blockchain-based loyalty-based program. Following the investment in FalconX, Harshul Sanghi, the Global Head of AmEx Ventures has noted their goal to “continue to drive innovation in the digital asset space, including digital currencies.”
2020 has seen companies such as MicroStrategy Inc., PayPal, and Square Inc. invest in Bitcoin. As the institutional investors rise, Guggenheim Partners LLC recently announced that it may invest up to 10% of its $5.3 billion Macro Opportunities Fund in a Bitcoin trust.
