
Citadel Securities has made a major strategic investment in Crypto.com. The firm invested $400 million in the crypto exchange at a $20 billion valuation. This marks Crypto.com’s first institutional funding round in its 10-year history.
Crypto.com plans to use the new capital to expand its operations in tokenized securities and derivatives. The investment comes as blockchain technology continues to reshape traditional finance with 24/7 trading and settlement.
“We are thrilled to work with Citadel Securities to continue driving the crypto industry into a new era of institutionalization,” said Kris Marszalek, co-founder and CEO of Crypto.com. “The size of the opportunity in front of us is staggering.”
This is not Citadel Securities’ first major crypto move. In November 2025, the firm invested $200 million in Kraken at a similar $20 billion valuation. Citadel also co-led a $500 million investment in Ripple and backs several other blockchain projects, including Digital Asset and Alpaca.
Despite being one of the world’s largest crypto exchanges, Crypto.com has raised relatively little capital until now. The company previously completed smaller funding rounds and an ICO in 2017. It rebranded from Monaco and consolidated its token ecosystem around CRO.
The exchange has also been active as an investor through its venture capital arm, which grew to $500 million in 2022. It recently launched tokenized stocks and ETFs in its app and offers popular Visa crypto cards.
For comparison, Coinbase currently trades at a market capitalization of around $43 billion.
This strategic partnership with Citadel Securities signals strong institutional confidence in Crypto.com and the broader digital asset industry as traditional finance and crypto continue to converge.
