Backpack, Crypto Startup Owned By Former FTX Employees, Gets IDR 250 Billion Funding

JAKARTA - Backpack, a crypto startup founded by former FTX executive, has managed to raise around IDR 250 billion (USD 17 million) in a Series A funding round led by Placeholder VC. The startup also received a valuation of around IDR 1.8 trillion (120 million US dollars) after the round.

For your information, Backpack is a platform that offers crypto exchange and wallet services, as well as a place for Solana's popular NFT project, MadLads. MadLads is an NFT collection of 10,000 unique characters created with a generating algorithm. The project was launched in November 2023 and has recorded trading volumes of more than IDR 1.1 trillion (USD 75 million) to date.

Backpack was founded in early 2023 by former FTX general adviser Daniel Hwang and former FTX.US chief strategy Ryan Salameh. Both have extensive experience in the crypto and legal industry. They also received support from FTX Ventures, an investment arm of the FTX crypto exchange, which participated in the Series A funding round.

Backpack faces a major challenge at the end of 2023, when FTX went bankrupt and a legal scandal involving its founder, Sam Bankman-Fried. FTX is one of the largest crypto exchanges in the world, with daily trading volumes reaching Rp1,000 trillion (67 billion US dollars) at its peak. However, the exchange is accused of fraud, money laundering, and regulatory violations by US authorities, and ultimately filed bankruptcy protection in November 2023.

The FTX scandal had a negative impact on Backpacks, which lost most of their capital and customers. However, with the help of Placeholder VC and other investors, Backpack managed to bounce back and improve their financial situation. Background also benefits from Solana's NFT market growth, which has surpassed Ethereum in monthly sales volume for the first time in January 2024.

Backpacks aren't the only crypto startup led by former FTX employees to get funding recently. Quoted from Blockworks, Brett Harrison, former president of FTX.US, has also raised IDR 177 billion (USD 12 million) for a new crypto derivative exchange he founded, called Derivix. Harrison said he wanted to build a more transparent, fair and secure exchange than FTX.