Citadel Securities Takes $400 Million Stake in Crypto.com

Crypto.com secured a $400 million strategic investment from Citadel Securities, according to a Thursday (July 16) press release.

The investment marks the first institutional funding round in the digital asset platform’s 10-year history and values the company at $20 billion, the release said.

The capital injection is intended to accelerate the company’s expansion into new asset classes, specifically tokenized securities and derivatives, according to the release. The primary objective is to bridge the divide between digital assets and traditional financial markets, creating a 24/7 financial ecosystem designed for greater market efficiency.

Executives at both firms framed the deal as a move toward the “institutionalization” of the cryptocurrency sector, per the release. Crypto.com Co-Founder and CEO Kris Marszalek said the industry is entering a phase where crypto serves as the underlying “rails for finance.”

“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,” Marszalek said in the release.

Citadel Securities President Jim Esposito described the convergence of traditional and digital infrastructure as an “exciting evolution” with the potential to improve capital markets. He said in the release that Citadel Securities, a global market maker, intends to collaborate with Crypto.com to support the continued maturation of digital asset infrastructure.

Beyond its core exchange business, Crypto.com is also targeting growth in prediction markets and tokenized real-world assets as part of its broader push into modern payments and investment use cases, the release said.

While the $400 million investment provides a war chest for technological expansion, it comes as the company undergoes an internal restructuring of its workforce to meet these new goals.

In March, Crypto.com reduced its staff by approximately 12% as it shifts its corporate focus toward enterprise-wide artificial intelligence integration.

The workforce reduction mirrored a broader trend across the FinTech sector, where firms like Block and Gemini have also slashed headcounts—by 40% and 25%, respectively—to prioritize AI.

Analysts suggested the moves are part of a wider industry transition where organizations are reassessing team sizes relative to the increased output potential of AI-powered products.