FTX was arguably the market-leading cryptocurrency exchange before it's highly-publicized liquidity crisis and ensuing bankruptcy filing in late 2022.
FTX (once valued over $32 billion) collapsed in a matter of days in November 2022 after it was revelaed that founder Bankman-Fried had secretly shifted $10 billion of FTX customer deposits to Alameda.
Despite their recent failures, one cannot overlook that FTX was incredibly successful in fundraising in a challenging environment:
They raised their first seed round in 2018 in the midst of the crypto-winter, and raised over $1.8 billion since.
FTX raised multiple rounds led by Sequoia, with participation from notable VC funds like Tiger Global, Softbank, Lightspeed Venture Partners, ICONIQ Growth, and more.
Here's an inside look at an FTX pitch deck from May 2021, presumably used to raise their $1B Series B round announced in June of the same year: