Amber to remain 'prudent' in crypto winter even as revenue climbs, Huang says

Amber Group will remain "prudent" during crypto winter even as the crypto trading firm's revenue climbed by 25% in the first half of the year. 

“We've seen, unfortunately, a number of firms haven’t managed their liquidity well, or their counterparty exposure well and are no longer with us,” Annabelle Huang, Amber's head of business development, said in an interview on Wednesday. “We are able to continue to outperform because we have built that risk management and continue to iterate on this since day one.” 

“That continues to be our bread and butter and our core competencies to continue to weather through market cycles like this,” she added. 

The firm, which has more than $5 billion in assets, announced its financial results for the first half of the year today, with revenue hitting $250 million, a 25% increase on the prior year. 

The unaudited results didn't include profit and loss figures. However, Huang said the firm is profitable and said the company is working with a Big Four accounting firm to get its financial statements audited “hopefully as soon as possible.” 

Founded in 2017, Amber Group provides a wide range of services to institutional clients from trading and liquidity services to yield products and recently branched into the consumer segment with its wealth management platform WhaleFin. It’s turned over $1 trillion in volumes since inception, according to the company's website. 

Revenue drivers

A key driver of revenue success this year was WhaleFin and WhaleFin Club, according to a statement from Amber that accompanied the half-year results. WhaleFin Club is a private wealth management service, which has a minimum threshold of $5 million in assets to become a member and provides access to Amber’s services team alongside the WhaleFin platform.

“We're fortunate in that sense that we have expanded space and captured more market share during the bull run, and then we're able to continue to maintain that base,” Huang said. 

 For the first half of the year, the firm has also homed in on security and compliance. It currently holds 12 regulatory licenses globally and is building out a comprehensive global insurance plan that aggregates over a $100 million in coverage, according to the release. 

Eyeing acquisitions

Amber is well capitalized after securing an infusion of cash from closing a Series B investment round earlier this year. The firm raised $200 million and is currently valued at $3 billion. The Block reported in May that Amber is seeking further funding, which would place the company’s valuation between $5 billion and $8 billion. 

Some of the capital from the Series B raise could go towards strategic opportunities in core markets and business areas, Huang said. Already this year, Amber Group has acquired Japanese exchange Decurrent as well as financial group Celera Markets. 

Huang said these sorts of acquisitions are likely to continue. 

"If anything, right now might be a better market timing because there are a lot of distressed opportunities out there,” she added.

A prudent approach

While the company has been cashflow positive since day one, Amber still wants to remain “prudent” with short-term goals, Huang said. This means staying focused on core markets like the Asia Pacific region and homing on the core businesses that provide value to institutional and high net worth clients. 

Some of this prudence was on display earlier this month when Bloomberg reported that the firm was cutting between 5% to 10% of headcount. Huang explained that these cuts are part of the company’s standard quarterly business planning. 

“We wanted to stay prudent and refocus on the on the key areas in the core businesses,” Huang said. “So that unfortunately means making some difficult decisions and we have done that.” 

“We're in a better position now to continue to build what we think could be the short term to long term prospects,” she added.