Global market maker Citadel Securities has invested $400 million in crypto exchange Crypto.com, giving the platform a $20 billion valuation, according to a Thursday announcement. 

Crypto.com, which has a number of digital asset products, said the cash would help the Singapore-based company expand its services to assets such as blockchain-based securities and derivatives. 

The cash will help bridge the gap “between digital asset and traditional markets to create a more efficient 24/7 financial ecosystem,” a Thursday announcement read. 

“The size of the opportunity in front of us is staggering, as crypto increasingly becomes the rails for finance,” Crypto.com CEO Kris Marszalek said in a statement. 

“Having built the right regulatory and tech infrastructure over the last decade, Crypto.com is now perfectly positioned to capture this new wave of growth across all asset classes.”

“The convergence of traditional financial markets and digital asset infrastructure is an exciting evolution with the potential to further improve market efficiency,” added Jim Esposito, President of Citadel Securities.

Wall Street’s interest in tokenization

Esposito’s comment comes as Wall Street interest in blockchain technology piques — despite a market slump.  

Back in February, BlackRock, the world’s biggest asset manager, announced that it was working with decentralised exchange Uniswap to bring one of its funds on-chain.

Before that, in January, the New York Stock Exchange said it was building a platform allowing traders to buy and sell tokenised versions of US-listed equities and exchange-traded funds. 

And most recently, the S&P 500 gave crypto platform Trade[XYZ] the green light to debut a new derivative contract on decentralized exchange Hyperliquid, allowing traders to gain leveraged exposure to the top index.

Citadel’s crypto interest 

Miami, Florida-based Citadel, has for some time been interested in digital assets: Back in 2023, the company helped debut EDX Markets, a “first-of-its-kind exchange” giving investors “safer, faster and more efficient cryptocurrency trading.”

The exchange this year applied for a national trust bank charter with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, marking a step toward deeper integration between digital asset firms and the US banking system.

Citadel last year also pumped $200 million into crypto exchange Kraken to help accelerate the company’s strategy of bringing traditional financial products on-chain.