Sam Bankman-Fried FTX cryptocurrency exchange CEO plans spot trading Cardano, Polkadot and Avalanche in the coming months as the platform will work together to attract more retail investors.
“There’s a lot of blockchains we want to list that are fairly significant,” the 29-year old crypto billionaire told Insider last week.
“Polkadot is probably right towards the top of that list. I think avalanche, I think probably Cardano is on that list. I think those are all blockchains that we want.”
FTX to Spot List Cardano in Next Month or Two
Bankman-Fried stated that FTX is the fourth-largest exchange in terms of daily trading volume and hopes to have more spot listings in the next month or two, with an emphasis on adding tokens to international exchanges.
The plan to let users buy and sell more tokens directly came at a time when interest in so-called altcoins was growing.
Cardano is a blockchain created by Ethereum co-founder Charles Hoskinson in 2017. Its cryptocurrency broke the $3 mark for the first time on Thursday and is currently third in market capitalization, only second after Bitcoin and Ethereum.
FTX currently lists futures in the cryptocurrencies of Polkadot, Cardano and Avalanche products that allow investors to bet on future prices without actually owning the assets. Futures trading currently accounts for around 80% of FTX products while spot trading accounts for around 20%.
The Crypto Exchange is Well Known for Attracting Institutional Investors
The exchange is trying to attract more retailers and is known to attract institutional investors. FTX is now sponsoring the referees of Major League Baseball and has acquired the naming rights for the home ground of the Miami Heat. It also works with soccer legend Tom Brady and supermodel Gisele Bündchen.
“We are trying to build out the consumer base, especially in the US,” Bankman-Fried told Insider. “A lot of what we’re thinking is, what are things that we could do that could plausibly reach tens of millions of potential users?”
US consumers are currently banned from using FTX’s international exchanges, despite a July report by data company Inca Digital said many Americans are circumventing such restrictions.
FTX’s US subsidiary, FTX.US, bought the LedgerX crypto derivatives platform this week in hopes of bringing futures trading to its US clients.
Bankman-Fried also said that FTX is currently activating broker-dealer licenses in the United States that could allow securities such as stocks to be listed on the stock exchange.
