FTX Swaps Windy City For Magic City, Relocating To Miami From Chicago
Cryptocurrency exchange service FTX appears to be the latest corporate powerhouse to swap Chicago for South Florida, hot on the heels of Citadel Securities announcing a similar move in June.
FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried said the Bahamas-based financial company would move its U.S. headquarters to Miami via Twitter Tuesday, also announcing the firm's U.S. president, Brett Harrison, is resigning from the company.
The news comes just a few months after FTX made headlines for opening a new 9K SF office building in the heart of Chicago, the South Florida Business Journal reports.
It also marks the fourth major corporate loss for Chicago in as many months. In addition to Citadel, aerospace giant Boeing announced in May it would make tracks for Virginia, while heavy equipment manufacturer Caterpillar went public with plans to take its HQ to Texas a month later.
Bad news for Chicago, however, was met with joy in Miami.
"[FTX] is one of the most innovative companies on the planet and you [Bankman-Fried] are one of the most innovative technologists," Mayor Francis Suarez tweeted Tuesday. "Welcome HOME!"
The company has not confirmed the number of employees that will relocate to the new Miami digs or where the new U.S. HQ would be located.
In November 2021, FTX Vice President of Business Development Avinash Dabir confirmed that the company was developing office space for nearly 20 employees in Brickell, Miami's financial district. Earlier in 2021, FTX acquired naming rights to the Miami Heat's American Airline Arena in a $135M deal.
FTX is just the latest crypto player to move to South Florida, joining fellow crypto exchange platforms like OkCoin and Blockchain.com.
FTX's Dabir spoke at a Bisnow blockchain and tokenization event in August about exchanging crypto and using it to buy Miami real estate. The company exchanges bitcoin, Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies, and is backed by $1.8B in investor funds.
