FTX’s reported $25 billion valuation was the figure attached to an October 2021 fundraising round—not $25 billion in cash, customer deposits, or a guarantee that the exchange was safe. It described how investors priced the company in that financing. It did not establish whether customer funds were segregated, accessible, or properly controlled.
What the $25 billion figure referred to
Axios reported that FTX raised $420.69 million in an October 2021 Series B round at a reported $25 billion valuation. The $420.69 million was the reported amount raised; $25 billion was the valuation associated with the round. They are different figures. The report does not provide original investor documents or a detailed valuation calculation, so the headline should be treated as a reported financing-round price signal, not a precise measure of cash or assets. Axios’s October 2021 report
A later round showed how quickly private-company valuations can change. Axios reported that FTX raised $400 million in January 2022 at a $32 billion valuation. In that contemporaneous interview, CEO Sam Bankman-Fried said, “We’re not racing to go public.” That was a statement about the company’s posture at the time, not a promise about its future. Axios’s January 2022 report
What a valuation can—and cannot—tell you
A financing valuation is an investor-facing estimate tied to a transaction. It is not the company’s bank balance, the value of customer assets held on its platform, or a dependable forecast of future performance. Nor does the number alone tell a customer whether the company is solvent, can process withdrawals, separates customer property from its own, or has effective governance and controls.
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Those questions require different evidence. Financial statements, risk disclosures, customer agreements, and custody policies address different aspects of a business; none should be replaced by a fundraising headline. A company’s own metric definitions matter too: two exchanges may use the same label for measures calculated differently or reported on different dates.
FTX shows why customer safety is a separate question
In its March 28, 2024 sentencing announcement, the U.S. Department of Justice said Sam Bankman-Fried was convicted and sentenced for fraudulent schemes involving misappropriated FTX customer funds and misleading information given to investors. The DOJ said claims that customer deposits were separate and safe were false. It quoted the sentencing announcement as saying: “Those statements were false, and BANKMAN-FRIED in fact channeled billions of dollars in customer deposits from FTX to Alameda, and then used those funds to make investments for his own benefit, to make political contributions, and to spend on real estate, among other expenditures.” U.S. Department of Justice, March 28, 2024
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This is a specific account of FTX, not evidence that every exchange has the same practices. Its relevance is narrower and important: a large reported valuation did not establish that FTX customer deposits were safely controlled. A customer needs evidence about custody and the company’s actual handling of funds, not a valuation as a proxy.
Separate the numbers exchanges report
Exchange disclosures often include figures that sound similar but describe different things. Coinbase’s 2025 shareholder letter, published in 2026, reports revenue, cash, trading volume, and assets on platform as separate measures. The distinctions are useful when evaluating any platform, but Coinbase’s company-reported metrics are not an apples-to-apples valuation comparison or an independent safety rating. Coinbase shareholder materials
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| Measure | What it describes | Example and qualification |
|---|---|---|
| Financing valuation | Investor pricing associated with a financing transaction; not cash raised or customer balances. | FTX’s reported $25 billion valuation accompanied its October 2021 Series B; Axios reported $420.69 million raised in that round. Axios |
| Company revenue | Income reported from company activities, distinct from trading volume or customer holdings. | Coinbase reported $7.2 billion in total revenue for 2025, $1.8 billion in Q4 total revenue, and a $667 million Q4 net loss in results published in 2026. Coinbase 2025 results |
| Company cash | Cash and cash equivalents reported as belonging to the company; not customer money. | Coinbase reported $11.3 billion in cash and cash equivalents at the end of 2025. Coinbase 2025 results |
| Trading volume | Trading activity over a period, not revenue, profit, or customer assets. | Coinbase reported $5,234 billion in total trading volume for 2025; its shareholder letter explains its volume measurement, including treatment of certain routed spot trades and derivatives notional volume. Coinbase 2025 shareholder letter |
| Assets on platform | Customer crypto assets and payment stablecoins held or managed on the platform, not company-owned assets. | Coinbase reported $246 billion in assets on platform as of June 30, 2026 on its investor-relations page. Its definition prices the customer assets on the last day of the quarter, so the figure can change with asset prices. Coinbase investor relations |
| Custodial funds and liabilities | Customer property and related obligations described separately from company assets in financial reporting. | Coinbase’s 2025 Form 10-K separately describes recognized custodial funds and liabilities; consult the filing for its accounting and disclosures rather than treating customer assets as company property. Coinbase 2025 Form 10-K |
Definitions can also make apparently similar user counts hard to compare. Gemini’s 2025 Form 10-K defines a monthly transacting user to include a broad set of revenue-generating activities, including trading, custody, staking, card activity, and withdrawals. A count with that definition should not automatically be treated as equivalent to another exchange’s active-user metric. Gemini 2025 Form 10-K
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What to check before trusting an exchange
Use dated primary disclosures and the customer agreement to answer customer-protection questions. Look for explicit language rather than inferring safety from company size, popularity, or a funding valuation.
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- Custody and segregation: What does the exchange say about holding customer assets, separating them from company property, and whether customer assets may be used, lent, or pledged?
- Access and withdrawals: What terms govern withdrawals, and what circumstances allow delays, restrictions, or suspension?
- Company finances and liabilities: Read audited financial statements and filed risk disclosures. Distinguish company cash and liabilities from customer custodial balances.
- Related parties and governance: Review disclosures about affiliated entities, conflicts of interest, control arrangements, and privileges over customer assets.
- Metric definitions and dates: Check what “users,” “volume,” and “assets on platform” mean, and when each figure was measured. Customer-asset totals may change with market prices.
- Evidence quality: Treat a financing headline or marketing claim differently from an audited statement or a formal filing. A disclosure describes what a company reports or says its policies are; it is not, by itself, a universal safety guarantee.
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