On April 3rd, Japanese crypto trading platform Liquid.com has officially closed the Series C funding round with the valuation of over $1 billion.

According to Cointelegraph Japan, the $1 billion valuation has now marked this company as the title of Japan’s second tech unicorn in startup space, while the remaining firm is Preferred Networks – an artificial intelligence firm specialized in robotics and machine tools.

Liquid is owned by Japanese cryptocurrency trading and financial services Quoine, which is licensed by Japan’s Financial Services Agency. It has been backed by giant Chinese application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) manufacturer Bitmain Technologies and American-based investment firm IDG Capital. IDG Capital has been known for its various investment in other giant crypto-related firms such as Coinbase, Ripple, Kakao’s crypto unit and Bitmain.

“The two leading companies, IDG Capital and Bitmain Technology, have joined our company through the Series C Investment Round, making Liquid a global virtual currency in 2019. It will be one of the market-leading companies. ” said Kariyama Kashiwa, a Liquid executive.

Katsuya Konno, representative director and head of CEO Office at Quoine, said that the money will be used as a fund for motivating global expansion and supporting product development as well as entering the security currency market.

Previously, Liquid has succeeded in raising more than $20 million from Japanese investment firms, which included JAFCO, SBI, B Dash Ventures and ULS Group. Back in 2017, Liquid had reportedly raised over $100 million in a pre-discounted and Financial Services Authority-regulated initial coin offering (ICO).