:quality(75)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/bloomberglinea/2GTO4B4AUVBYTC5GNPW6YRSWXU.jpg "Foxbit raises R$ 110 million OK Group-led round")
Chinese blockchain technology and services provider OK Group is investing $21 million (R$110 million) in Foxbit, a cryptocurrency exchange in Brazil. With Series A, Foxbit intends to invest in new technologies, hiring people, and potential acquisitions.
The cryptocurrency exchange emerged in 2014 and until then operated independently, without major investors behind it, according to CEO João Canhada. “The company has evolved a lot in these last few years and together with my partners, Felipe Trovão and Ricardo Dantas, we understood that this investment now was a necessary step for us to continue improving the services provided to our clients. The OK Group is one of the largest brokerages in the world, and Brazil is a large market in expansion, it was a perfect match. We will align strength and confidence with OK Group’s technology and liquidity,” said the executive.
Foxbit has traded R$20 billion to date and claims to have almost 1 million registered clients. Last year, with the growth of digital assets such as NFTs, DeFis, game coins, and meme coins, Foxbit expanded its business with new products and services aimed at the B2B and B2B2C markets such as asset tokenization, crypto-as-a-service, and cryptocurrency payment methods with Foxbit Tokens, Foxbit Pay and Compra Fácil. The company also launched 30 new coins on its exchange in 2021.
On its behalf, OK Group has more than 50 million users in 180 markets around the world. With Foxbit, the company intends to consolidate in Brazil, where it faces competition from Mercado Bitcoin, controlled by the 2TM holding company. In January, Mercado Libre, the largest e-commerce company in Latin America, bought a stake in 2TM to expand cryptocurrency services in the region.
Industry players are keeping an eye on the digital assets of Latin Americans. On Monday, Spanish cryptocurrency platform Bit2Me, developer of its own B2M token and provider of virtual currency services, said it has partnered with Axie Infinity to expand in Spain, Portugal, and Latin America. The bet is on the metaverse, the virtual world built with blockchain. Axie Infinity is a Play-to-Earn (P2E) game that creates a community in the metaverse in which players battle with fantastic creatures, combining technology, finance, and entertainment. With the partnership, Bit2Me will assist Axie Infinity gamers who are from Iberia and Latin America with support in Portuguese and Spanish.
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