Alameda Research has expanded its investment portfolio by allocating $4 million to Coin98 Finance, an up-and-coming DeFi platform from Vietnam, according to Chinese fintech outlet ChainNews.
Coin98 Ventures, the VC firm behind Coin98, reportedly operates the biggest cryptocurrency fund in Vietnam and is also a key backer of the Solana Ecosystem Fund, which recently raised $40 million in strategic investments from major digital currency exchanges.
As ChainNew notes, Coin98 operates a decentralized exchange and wallet, with transaction volumes totaling $20 million in March. The exchange boasts of roughly 200,000 users, mainly in Southeast Asia.
Alameda Research is a quantitative investment firm that manages over $100 million in digital assets. It also operates FTX, one of the largest derivatives exchanges in all of crypto, with reported trade volumes of $11.3 billion as of Tuesday.
Alameda is in the midst of an investment frenzy, as the company seeks to expand its balance sheet and carve out a stronger position within the cryptocurrency sector. In March, Alameda invested $2 million in Efficient Frontier, a Tel Aviv-based algorithmic crypto market maker. During the same month, Alameda allotted $20 million to Reef Finance, a Polkadot-based DeFi platform.
The DeFi market achieved a major milestone on Tuesday after breaking $100 billion in total value locked or TVL. As Cointelegraph reported, the DeFi sector’s TVL was less than $21 billion at the start of 2021.