Bitrue floats $50M cryptocurrency investment fund

The crypto exchange platform plans to support blockchain startups working on paradigm-shifting use cases for the emerging technology.

Bitrue crypto exchange has announced a $50-million investment fund geared toward supporting cryptocurrency and blockchain startups.

According to a recent announcement, the investment fund will target crypto projects working on use cases with the potential to advance the development of the emerging blockchain ecosystem.

Of the $50-million sum, 70% will be in the form of Tether (USDT), while the exchange also plans to fund the remaining 30% via its native token, Bitrue Coin (BTR). As of the time of writing, BTR is trading at $0.20 and is up about 578% over the last year, according to data from CoinGecko.

Projects looking to attract Bitrue’s investment can pitch directly to the company. As part of the announcement, the crypto exchange platform also revealed that it will be on the lookout for potential beneficiaries with members of the crypto community encouraged to nominate would-be recipients of the investment pot.

Commenting on the company’s selection plans to determine worthy recipients, Adam O’Neill, chief marketing officer of Bitrue, said:

“We will be carefully selecting projects that we deem have an appreciable chance of becoming successful or have some form of significant value. In this way, we hope that more entrepreneurs will be able to change the world through blockchain technology.”

Launched back in 2018, Bitrue ranks 72nd on the list of crypto exchanges based on 24-hour trading volume, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

As previously reported by Cointelegraph, Bitrue joined OKEx back in August 2020 to become one of the first few platforms to offer hybrid crypto exchange services — both centralized and decentralized finance options.

Indeed, amid the clamor for institutional investments in the crypto space, exchanges are often ubiquitous in the seeding of new cryptocurrency businesses. Several major platforms like Coinbase and Binance have investment arms that routinely provide early-stage capital for emerging startups in the blockchain space.