The Future Vision of FTX: The Exchange of Everything

Author: Mario Gabriele, The Generalist

Compiled by: Chain Catcher
It's strange to think that Amazon was once just a bookseller.
Young Jeff Bezos was a new traitor in the hedge fund world, and he did a lot of research before making decisions. Should his online business sell CDs? VHS tapes?
Books made the most sense. Their durability, portability, and especially their diversity made them ideal for selling online. It turned out to be a wise decision.
Of course, over time, Amazon became grander and broader. A place where you can buy almost anything imaginable—a "general store," as writer Brad Stone described it.
If FTX manages to maintain its trajectory, we might look back at this period as the company's "books" era. Today, FTX is primarily a cryptocurrency exchange, but that may not last long.
Through conversations with leadership, investors, and insiders in the cryptocurrency space—along with access to internal strategic documents, The Generalist paints a picture of a company that no longer sees itself as a cryptocurrency product but as a "general exchange," a marketplace for buying and selling various assets. Whether such a lofty goal can be achieved remains to be seen.
In the final part of our FTX trilogy, we will unravel four potential avenues the company might pursue to expand its footprint, involving feature development and acquisitions. We will specifically discuss:

• Betting on sports. Why FTX's sponsorships might signal more involvement in the industry.
• Expanding crypto. How FTX supports its institutional and consumer crypto products.
• Becoming a bank. What does it mean for FTX to see itself as a full-stack financial business?
• Entering social media. Should FTX acquire a social network? It might be the best opportunity for mass customer acquisition and mainstream cryptocurrency.

Sports: Playing in the Big Leagues
FTX's decision to spend $500 million sponsoring the Miami Heat, MLB, and esports team TSM seems odd at first glance. Why would a cryptocurrency exchange waste funds equivalent to a funding round on such generic, aimless marketing? How many more precise avenues did the company overlook in favor of fattening the pockets of the sports world and its fanbase?
If marketing is often a game of sniping and scalpels, optimized every tenth of a second, then FTX seems to be rushing in with a shotgun. In fact, why haven't more established entities like Coinbase or Gemini taken similar flashy initiatives?
When you think FTX's approach might be targeted, it starts to make more sense—after all, it just aimed at another bullseye: the sports world. In the coming years, we might see FTX play a role in betting, tokenized contracts, NFTs, and ticketing.

What is the obvious starting point? Of course, it's sports betting. (Whether traditional sports or esports)

When I asked SBF about FTX entering this space, he replied, "Maybe."
Even without confirmation from FTX's leadership, this move makes sense on the surface. Many believe last year showed a connection between retail investors and gamblers. When casinos and sports leagues shut down during lockdowns, brokerage firms like Robinhood and Coinbase thrived, with risk-loving participants trading the adrenaline rush of Sunday football for a chaotic market.
With its high-leverage products, FTX has been courting these thrill-seekers. But so far, it has only captured those with high-risk tolerance who are also tech-savvy in crypto. This is just a small fraction of the population.
Entering sports betting would change that equation. FTX would find itself serving not just quirky traders but every adventurous merchant. Of course, people on the platform could also satisfy their betting needs, increasing the average revenue per user (ARPU). An internal document listing DraftKings as a competitor makes sense.
This isn't the only avenue for FTX in the sports market. After nearly a year of re-signing with the NBA, Washington Wizards point guard Spencer Dinwiddie won the right to sell shares in his tokenized contract in 2020. While few investors were interested—possibly because Dinwiddie only sold 90 tokens at $150,000 each—it laid the groundwork for future projects.
FTX might be the only exchange willing to try tokenized contracts and treat them fairly. What would it look like if thousands of fans invested in Luka Dončić's Supermax extension project, paying upfront for returns? How much status could these investors gain? And once a sufficient market is established, could these positions be traded like any other asset?
This hints at a third opportunity: sports NFTs. FTX's U.S. NFT page shows that the company is interested in this opportunity, with NFL cards making up a large portion of the inventory.

FTX's NFTs
It's hard to say what these assets should consist of. In many ways, they look like a visual "lorem ipsum"—filling space until something better comes along.
This might be an area best addressed through acquisitions. Numerous NFT exchanges already exist, and while FTX will point to its affluent customer base, it's unclear whether traders would want to buy NFTs from the same place they exchange tokens. If one is driven by economic interests, the other is driven by status. Branding and aesthetic issues are not FTX's strong suits in either regard.
FTX could take two paths in acquisitions: buying NFT creators or acquiring NFT marketplaces.
Dapper Labs is the most prominent company creating NFTs, with NBA Topshot as its flagship project. While a union between the two is an intriguing thought, Dapper's reported valuation of $7.5 billion likely puts it out of FTX's reach. Sorare, which sells soccer NFT trading cards, is another option, though its premium is estimated at $3.8 billion. Moreover, given soccer's relative lack of popularity in the U.S., the latter may not help FTX win over the crucial American market.
Of course, FTX would be better off focusing on the NFT market rather than specific creators. In many ways, this would make more sense given the company's current feature set. Opensea, "the world's largest NFT marketplace," recently had a valuation of $1.5 billion. This could stretch FTX's resources, but it might be worth it. It would immediately provide a significant amount of inventory and moderate brand power. Rarible, which has raised $14.2 million, would likely be much cheaper and could achieve similar goals.
Interestingly, SBF noted interest in NFTs related to sports, although their form differs from anything we've mentioned so far. Specifically, the CEO of the Financial Times highlighted the potential of ticketing. SBF described why NFTs make sense, emphasizing that tickets have digital representations, value, and the potential to be interesting collectibles. He also pointed out the rough resale market—hot tickets often sell for multiples of their expected price, benefiting middlemen rather than artists, players, or teams.
With FTX's arena rights for the Miami Heat lasting 19 years, the company has ample time to leverage its foothold. Over time, fans could enter the FTX arena with FTX NFTs, watching the players they invested in and the portraits they received digitally.
Crypto: Chasing Consumers and Institutions
Without straying too far, FTX could grow in the crypto market. In the next 1-2 years, we can expect improvements in its institutional services, more mature staking products, and consumer-friendly offerings. We may also see the company elaborate on its current prediction market products.

Despite attracting a significant number of "whales," FTX is relatively immature in its institutional business. For instance, last week, we noted that the company had 2,700 institutional clients, a small fraction of Coinbase's total institutional clients. Earlier this year, Coinbase reported serving over 8,000 institutions.
As interest in cryptocurrencies grows, institutional investment will only increase. Investors in this space have noticed a sharp increase in capital allocation to the industry; FTX will want to ensure it captures this wave of capital influx. This requires a strong business development and sales team. Institutional sales cycles are typically long and often require multiple touchpoints. As a newcomer in this field, known for its cautious approach, FTX has much to prove.
Enhancements to the platform will help with this. Currently, Anchorage is clearly a top player, serving institutions and ultra-high-net-worth individuals. So far, the company has raised $137 million, offering advanced, secure custody solutions, insurance, easily auditable data, and robust trading services. Can FTX partner with it?
FTX cannot acquire all interested crypto companies (even if Alameda has invested in most of them); for now, it hopes to focus on acquisitions that can expand its user base. A deep integration with Anchorage would benefit both parties—FTX could demonstrate its maturity to institutional clients while Anchorage's assets could be custodied. Over time, more content could develop as well.
FTX should consider staking as part of its institutional upgrade. Staking allows clients to earn rewards similar to interest from delegated assets. While the company offers staking services for its platform token FTT, there is more work to be done beyond that. In recent years, Coinbase enhanced its capabilities in this area by acquiring Bison Trails (reportedly for $80 million). Coin98, which appears to be a more comprehensive DeFi solution in Alameda's portfolio, could help address this issue, although it seems to focus more on consumers.
It would be wise for FTX to offer similar products to retail investors, whether through staking or otherwise. Companies like BlockFi have attracted a large number of customers by offering a business model where users hold crypto assets and earn interest. While this is achieved through lending rather than staking, the end-user returns are similar (though the risk profiles differ).
This seems to be something FTX has considered. Acquiring BlockFi would be unwise—the company's latest valuation is $3 billion, and it reportedly serves 265,000 consumers and 200 institutions. Roughly calculating customer acquisition costs from FTX's perspective, each customer is worth about $11,000. BlockFi's recent conflict with the New Jersey Attorney General may indicate that starting from scratch is the wiser move.
Nexo, a competitor to BlockFi, has raised about $50 million, roughly one-tenth of BlockFi's valuation. While it has a customer base of 2 million, its pricing may still be cheaper. Nexo's investors include Arrington XRP Capital, a fund associated with the Ripple crypto project, which has faced its own regulatory issues with the SEC. FTX shouldn't let such issues deter them, but this situation suggests that "building" may be wiser than acquiring.
In addition to these larger initiatives, FTX also hopes to develop in other existing product lines, such as enhancing its quantitative trading tools, promoting options trading to relatively less mature audiences (which, as Robinhood has faced, could bring risks and criticism), and continually increasing the number of markets it can offer.
FTX's expansion in prediction markets is particularly intriguing. Currently, it is a unique product in the field that could generate massive attention. Although there is currently little trading, the market saw a significant surge during the U.S. presidential election. Can FTX achieve sustained growth by offering more bets based on current event predictions? What if every election, every Grammy, or every Oscars could be bet on?
Just as sports betting will allow FTX to reach risk-loving enthusiasts beyond the crypto world, a robust prediction market will facilitate speculation independent of any party's interests. While this may seem a bit dystopian—it's a veiled encouragement of gambling—it aligns with the idea of a "general exchange."
It doesn't have to be that dark. A graceful example of this idea can be found in Kalshi, where a crypto expert discusses an acquisition. The Y Combinator graduate offers access to "event contracts," allowing users to "directly touch" future events, such as how much GDP will increase or where the U.S. trade deficit with China will go.
These types of questions are typically offered by exchanges regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). As a company that raised $30 million from Sequoia Capital in its Series A, Kalshi certainly has reasons to want to develop this aspect of its business. This is precisely the kind of creative initiative suitable for FTX, and the acquisition price for this startup may be relatively reasonable. Additionally, Polymarket is also a candidate.
FTX has already established a strong foundation in the crypto world; however, the pace of expansion and growth in the crypto space means there is still much for FTX to do.
Banking: Offense and Defense
In SBF's view, the distinction between traditional finance and cryptocurrency is an artificial boundary. When I asked him about FTX's future, he quickly turned to the desire to build a mature financial giant, a super currency application that can handle payments, custody, and investments across asset classes simultaneously.
FTX has already indicated which features it will prioritize: stock trading and payments.
As we detailed last week, FTX has created a market for tokenized stocks, meaning users can buy synthetic stocks of Tesla 24/7. While this is an appealing add-on product, if FTX only offers this one product, serious stock enthusiasts are unlikely to shift their trading volume to FTX. To compete, we should expect FTX to launch a "reverse Robinhood." Just as commission-free exchanges added cryptocurrency investment products to support their core business, FTX could add traditional trading.
Gaining regulatory approval may take time, and patience is not a strong suit for either FTX or the market. This makes acquisitions the most likely outcome. SBF has stated in past interviews that acquiring the world's largest derivatives exchange, CME Group, "is not impossible," with a current market cap of $75 billion.
Would Miami International Holdings (MIH) make sense?
Miami is the most crypto-friendly city in the U.S., and FTX's acquisition of MIH is undeniably appealing emotionally, not to mention that Miami is also a hotbed for sponsorships. More importantly, MIH owns MIAX (an exchange in Miami), MGAX (Minneapolis Grain Exchange), and BSX (Bermuda Stock Exchange), and is well-regarded for its technology design in the derivatives space. In its portfolio, MIH offers more esoteric products that FTX is interested in, such as agricultural contracts and volatility indices. A commercial real estate derivatives market is on the horizon.
Whatever actions FTX takes in this regard, SBF clearly wants to aggregate cross-asset trading on its platform. We can expect more soon.
FTX Pay reveals another significant interest of the company. While this product currently only handles online purchases, FTX is expected to expand into the entire payments space, impacting both businesses and individuals. FTX has already partnered with Visa to launch the FTX card. While still in the works, it illustrates how FTX envisions an infinite future for money and wealth—users can pay with dollars, Bitcoin, or other tokens, with merchants facing no extra effort.
Blockfolio could play a key role in expanding these functionalities. Currently, it is FTX's most mobile and consumer-friendly asset. Could it serve as the foundation for a real-world wallet or peer-to-peer payment product? Blockfolio currently has a user base of 6-7 million, roughly equivalent to Cash App's user base in 2017—an excellent starting point.

Over time, we might see FTX attempt to build a truly new banking suite. If Dave disagrees with merging with Marc Cuban's SPAC, it could become an interesting target. The company has 10 million users and reliable products, expected to go public at a valuation of $4 billion. Alameda is one of its investors. (To counter myself: Dave seems to have won over the overdraft-wary, less affluent crowd—while FTX may see itself serving a wealthier demographic.)
While questioning FTX is often a dangerous game, it's fair to be skeptical about its capabilities in this area.
Of course, it makes sense that SBF wants FTX to become a full-stack financial giant… but is that what consumers want?
Fintech is converging, and market leaders are regularly catching up with one another. Square is a standout in this regard—Cash App is "biting" Venmo (payments), Robinhood (stocks), and Coinbase (crypto), while its recent acquisition of Afterpay reveals it may also develop a "buy now, pay later" business. Every institution is trying to get in on the action, and the game is aimed at every competitor.

Where does FTX fit into this?
FTX hopes it can act faster than its competitors, swallowing their territories before they reach its crypto domain—a game of offense and defense. Can it? Clearly, FTX has some advantages—namely, the explosive growth of its native business and its impressive team background. But largely, it is competing with other well-run, bright, and innovative institutions. Many institutions have more resources.
FTX's unique disadvantages cannot be overlooked. While its focus on the crypto space has allowed it to rise quickly, it may disappoint consumers who view the crypto space as speculative and unsafe. Even many tech-savvy customers may not want a bank with crypto DNA.
FTX's ambition to dominate the financial world is admirable, and time will tell if it is realistic.
Social: Customer Acquisition Cost Calculation
There is one vague idea I can't shake: FTX should acquire Reddit.
As we mentioned in the previous article, Reddit has historically been terrible at monetizing its user base. This has been reflected in its valuation, with the platform's daily active users (DAU) being only 1/18 of Facebook's. While the latest $10 billion valuation reflects growth in the company's advertising platform business—bringing in $100 million per quarter—it still remains low.
FTX has demonstrated strong customer acquisition talent and the ability to monetize its user base through trading. As we outlined last week, FTX acquired Blockfolio's user base at a cost of about $23 per user, then increased crypto investment. The average revenue per unit (ARPU) is $337, making such an acquisition potentially quickly profitable.
Could something similar happen with Reddit? It would be an incredible move, but it might make sense.
Reddit has 430 million users, with 50 million daily active users. It could be argued that it is the leading social network most knowledgeable about cryptocurrency, and it has also minted exclusive native tokens for some popular subreddits. Users in these forums use "Moons" or "Bricks" to purchase upgrades.
Of course, Reddit is also the birthplace of YOLO finance: WallStreetBets (WSB). These are precisely the types of users FTX could profit from effectively. They not only trade incessantly from a community culture perspective but also seem more inclined toward high-profit options trading.
What if this community, which usually uses it to chat, meme, and mess around, could also trade on the same interface? How powerful would the force of community culture be? And how much money could that generate?
This is just a possible start for integration. What if r/politics combined with prediction markets, and r/nfl combined with sports betting? From FTX's perspective, Reddit is a batch of traders waiting to be tapped.

The price tag would make such an acquisition difficult. However, if FTX could effectively build trading, it could achieve a customer acquisition cost very similar to that of Blockfolio. At a $10 billion valuation, Reddit's 430 million users would average $23 per user.
Of course, there are many reasons to argue that this would be unwise. Reddit users are notoriously cynical and cautious about governance, meaning new ownership could spark a storm, especially in more active communities like WSB. (Similarly, I see this community welcoming a ruler with a YOLO certificate, while SBF is regarded as a "trader demigod" in many circles.)
Additionally, many of Reddit's users are anonymous—this status does not naturally align with financial exchanges. While users can remain publicly anonymous, they still have to grant more personal information to the platform itself.
While acquiring Reddit might be the boldest move—creating a true social and monetary network—FTX may have many other ways to strengthen its ambitions in the mass market. Partnering with Reddit or Twitter is one option, and it could also serve as a good test. Could we see a "super follow" for crypto tokens? Jack Dorsey is one of the early executives to experiment with cryptocurrency, suggesting he might be open to it.
Though it may not be very useful from a crypto mainstream perspective, FTX could also strike deals or partnerships with social platforms in specific industries. While Bitclout's mechanics are crude and its assets are hard to accept, its "crypto Twitter" has attracted attention and funding. Still, its user base is unlikely to grow significantly (as of the end of June, Bitclout had about 300,000 registered users), and its low reputation could hinder FTX's regulatory efforts.
More interesting moves might come from further afield. While not a true social network, Axie Infinity is a social game that can achieve strong non-crypto customer acquisition. According to a source, about 50% of Axie's 1 million daily active users had never interacted with cryptocurrency before registering. These are precisely the types of people FTX wants to capture.
Can FTX or Alameda secure a significant position in Axie and drive cross-platform collaboration? It remains unclear whether FTX's user base would be attracted to this game, but serious Axie players and breeders might benefit from a simple way to store their SLP and AXS tokens and trade them for other currencies.
It would also add an interesting element to the "FTXverse," providing participants with a digital territory to spend their rewards. In this regard, it could transform the ecosystem, making FTX not just an exchange but a true economy—a vibrant economy with incredible trading volume and activity.
Should we expect FTX to move toward any of the above ideas?
When I asked SBF about potential collaborations with social networks, he said, "We would love to. We're looking into similar things."
This may be a warning to the market.
For those thinking from a customer acquisition cost perspective, social networks may provide the best opportunity to acquire monetization-lower customers in bulk.
FTX started as a cryptocurrency derivatives exchange, but that doesn't mean it will be its final state. Just as Bezos recognized that books were the sharpest wedge into the emerging e-commerce market, SBF seems to recognize that crypto represents the most vibrant component of the financial revolution.

FTX has proven to be a company willing to innovate and experiment, hoping to extend its boundaries far beyond the crypto world into sports, banking, and social media, becoming an exchange for everything.

Amazon was once just a bookseller. Over time, we may find that viewing FTX as a crypto company is equally quaint.