Amber has scrapped plans to expand in Europe and the United States as a consequence of exposure to the now-defunct exchange FTX
Despite the FTX contagion having “minimal interruption” to its everyday operations, cryptocurrency trading company Amber Group is delaying its expansion ambitions, according to a top official.
As a result of exposure to the now-defunct exchange FTX, Amber has abandoned plans to expand in Europe and the United States and will instead concentrate on institutional clients in Asia, according to managing partner Annabelle Huang.
The Financial Times reported on December 9 that Huang also claimed that Amber was compelled to lower the priority of its new metaverse project as a result of the FTX outbreak.
Along with abandoning its expansion plans, the company apparently recently reduced its personnel. The company apparently let go up to 40% of its workforce in September, and it did it again in December.
Huang claimed that Amber had 10% of its trading money stranded on FTX, which had no impact on the business’ regular operations. Amber has kept up its efforts to find new sources of capital and make new acquisitions in order to carry out its goals to continue serving consumers across Asia.
A new sovereign fund has provided capital to the Temasek-backed enterprise in the amount of $50 million; the agreement will be publicized in January. The new funding values Amber at $3 billion, similar to the $200 million round that it had previously.
The raised sum is two times less than Amber had anticipated. Huang stated that Amber does not view its ongoing rise as a failure. She added that Amber will also announce a significant acquisition of a licensed Singaporean business in December and said, “We are not under pressure to raise capital.”
The news comes shortly after Huang denied allegations of Amber’s insolvency. The exec took to Twitter on Dec. 6 to respond to allegations that Amber was “on the verge of bankruptcy,” stating:
“We continue to operate business as usual. If you have any concerns, withdrawals are open as usual.”
The allegations were made by on-chain analyst Lookonchain, who detected some significant discrepancies between wallets allegedly owned by Amber and the reported funds and trading volumes.
